Full text of "Playboy's Around The World By Shel Silverstein"

See other formats

PLAYBOY'S

SILVERSTEIN AROUND THE WORLD

SHEL SILVERSTEIN

A FIRESIDE BOOK

PUBLISHED BY SIMON & SCHUSTER

NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY

FIRESIDE
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

FIRESIDE and colophon are registered trademarks
of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases,
please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798
or business@simonandschuster.com.

Design by Carrmichael

Introduction photo credits: initial photo by Don Bronstein ; all others by Larry Moyer
Manufactured in the United States of America
13579 10 8642

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9024-1
ISBN-10: 0-7432-9024-0

These essays were originally published individually by Playboy magazine.

CONTENTS

W/ K

/ *

1 /

jppw v :

CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY HUGH M. HEFNER
INTRODUCTION BY MITCH MYERS
RETURN TO TOKYO MAY 1957
SILVERSTEIN IN SCANDINAVIA JULY 1957

SILVERSTEIN IN LONDON OCTOBER 1957

SILVERSTEIN IN PARIS JANUARY 1958

SILVERSTEIN IN MOSCOW MARCH 1958

SILVERSTEIN IN ITALY JUNE 1958

SILVERSTEIN IN SWITZERLAND NOVEMBER 1958

SILVERSTEIN IN SPAIN MARCH 1959

SILVERSTEIN FIGHTS A BULL APRIL 1959

SILVERSTEIN AMONG THE ARABS AUGUST 1959

SILVERSTEIN IN AFRICA OCTOBER 1959

SILVERSTEIN IN GREENWICH VILLAGE SEPTEMBER 1960

SILVERSTEIN IN ALASKA MAY 1961

105

SILVERSTEIN IN HAWAII JUNE 1961

111

SILVERSTEIN PLAYS BALL JUNE 1962

117

SILVERSTEIN IN MIAMI MARCH 1963

125

SILVERSTEIN IN A NUDIST CAMP AUGUST 1963

137

SILVERSTEIN IN MEXICO MARCH 1965

145

SILVERSTEIN ON FIRE ISLAND AUGUST 1965

153

SILVERSTEIN IN LONDON JUNE 1967

161

SILVERSTEIN IN HOLLYWOOD JANUARY 1968

169

SILVERSTEIN AMONG THE HIPPIES JULY 1968

176

MORE SILVERSTEIN AMONG THE HIPPIES AUGUST 1968

183

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FOREWORD

BY HUGH M. HEFNER

Shel Silverstein was one of the most creative individuals I've ever known.
His contributions to Playboy are legendary — and, as you can see in this book,
his work stands the test of time. Shel was a true Renaissance man. He was
a person of multiple talents that went beyond the art and humor I initially
saw in him. Shel began his career as a cartoonist, but he went on to greater
glory. He became an author of bestselling children's books, a songwriter,
poet and playwright. He became our house humorist. And, most important
to me, he became a confidant and one of my closest friends.

I remember well the first time I met him. It was in Chicago in 1956. A
veteran who had just returned to the States from military duty in Japan,
he had heard word about a new, upstart magazine named Playboy. He
decided to take his drawings to the Playboy office at 11 East Superior. He
left a portfolio of his drawings with my secretary, but I didn't get around

to looking at it right away. After a couple of weeks Shel came back to the
office and demanded his cartoons back. He didn't think we were going
to buy any of them. I asked him to wait while I looked them over. I went
through his portfolio — there were maybe fifteen drawings in it — and I took
out eight and put them on my desk. "Let's see, what's that?" I asked him.
"Five hundred, six hundred dollars?" Shel nodded his head. "I suppose you
could use it now," I said. "Yeah," he said. So I took out a checkbook from my
desk and wrote Shel a check. I sensed some uncertainty on his part. Maybe
it was because I needed a shave and was wearing my pajamas. Shel didn't
think the magazine was going to last or that the check would even clear. It
was quarter to five on a Friday afternoon and the banks were closed. Shel
took off in disbelief, found a currency exchange someplace, and cashed
the check right away. We always got a kick about that in later years. How
implausible it all seems now.

Everything begins with Shel's travels. I think it was through the work
you'll see in this volume that he started to define himself. He wasn't sure
about what he wanted to do with his life. He knew he wanted to revisit
Japan, and I asked him to send back drawings from the trip, and to include
himself as a character in them. I envisioned something along the lines of the
travel letters Ernest Hemingway submitted to Esquire — a sort of personal diary
that would be dispatched from around the globe. Shel was uncomfortable in
that role. He didn't want to include himself, but I persisted. And I'm glad I
did. What we got back in those drawings was narrative storytelling of a very
personal manner. We saw Shel establish himself as a character.

What is clear in those cartoons is Shel's humanity. During the Cold War,
he went into the belly of the beast, traveling to Red Square in Moscow.
Right from the beginning Shel established a rapport with people wherever
he went.

In some cases, what artists do on paper has nothing to do with their
personal lives. But that's not the case with Shel. He was Uncle Shelby. He
was the dreamer. He was his work. What comes through in the drawings
is from the heart. What you'll see here is the expression of a great talent
and a great friend.

Hugh M. f^efner
Los Angeles
September 2006

INTRODUCTION | BY MITCH MYERS

This book is for Hef. Who else could have come up with
such a dream job for Shel? He got to travel the globe —
expenses paid — and send artistic impressions of his exotic
experiences back home to be published in a popular new
magazine with a growing circulation that would make
him a star. Hef gave Shel the opportunity to have a good
time, indulge his inner child and his outer adult, and, for
heaven's sake — get laid as much as possible!

Shel Silverstein is known throughout the world as a children's author who wrote
and illustrated a number of memorable books that have charmed readers of all ages. His
reputation as a writer of children's books began with the auspicious rise in popularity of
The Giving Tree, which was first published in 1964. His literary fame grew further with
storybooks like The Missing Piece and timeless poetry collections like A Light in the Attic
and Where the Sidewalk Ends .

At the same time, Shel was a wry, sometimes bawdy songwriter who wrote
hits for Johnny Cash ("A Boy Named Sue"), the Irish Rovers ("The Unicorn"), and
Doctor Hook and the Medicine Show ("Sylvia's Mother" and "The Cover of
the Rolling Stone"). He made a number of records under his own name,
including offbeat albums like I'm So Good That I Don't Have to Brag and Freakin'
at the Freakers Ball.

In Nashville, Shel enjoyed friendships with essential American artists
like Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, John Hartford and Chet
Atkins. He composed songs for films like "I'm Checkin' Out," performed by
Meryl Streep in Mike Nichols's Postcards from the Edge. He wrote the songs for
Ned Kelly starring Mick Jagger, and Marianne Faithfull covered "The Ballad of
Lucy Jordan," which was featured in Thelma & Louise.

Shel was also an accomplished playwright, with credits that include The
Lady or the Tiger Show, Gorilla and his one-man opus. The Devil and Billy Markham.
He co-wrote the screenplay Things Change with David Mamet.

What is often overlooked is that Shel came to prominence in the 1950s as a
cartoonist for Playboy. More than an illustrator, he was a creative talent — and eager to
be a part of the team. Almost immediately, he assumed the role of roving ambassador
for the up-and-coming magazine. This esteemed assignment was due in no small part
to his unique friendship with Playboy editor in chief, Hugh M. Hefner.

Along with other early players — including artist LeRoy Neiman, businessman
Victor Lownes and restaurateur John Dante — Shel was part of Hefner's inner circle,
hanging out at the old Playboy offices and frequenting the adult playground situated
at 1340 North State Parkway in Chicago: the Playboy Mansion.

"Hef was in his pajamas when I met him," Shel recalled in 1986. "I had really
thought at the time that I was meeting a guy who just woke up, which is a legitimate
concern, you know? That same day I met LeRoy Neiman, who was wearing ragged
shorts and was barefoot, and I thought — this is an interesting place."

Surrounded by celebrities, intellectuals,
jazzmen, comedians and beautiful women,
the Playboy elite enjoyed a very special
camaraderie while the magazine became
a cultural fountainhead. Shel was the true
bohemian of the bunch, and one of the few
to remain a lifelong bachelor.

Playboy's Silverstein Around the World is
a series of illustrated comic travelogues —
a legacy of the relationship between Shel
and Hef and a by-product of the social
revolution led by Playboy in the 1950s and
1960s. The bond that these men shared
was profound, and their alliance tran-
scended all trappings of success. Shel's
affiliation with Playboy made him a local
hero in Chicago, and his stature as a
Renaissance man grew along with the
fortunes of the magazine.

Before Shel turned up at Playboy, he
served in the army. He worked for the
military newspaper Stars and Stripes while
stationed in Japan during the Korean War.
His series of sardonic cartoons about army life for Stars and Stripes were quite popular
among the enlisted men. He collected and published these works as his first book. Take
Ten, which is also known as Grab Your Socks.

Returning to his hometown of Chicago, Shel made his way as an illustrator,
successfully placing small cartoons in Sports Illustrated and Look magazine. He would
later rework the Look illustration for the cover of his book Now i
of Futilities.

Art Paul, the original art director for Playboy, takes credit f<
introducing Shel to Hefner in 1956. "I met Shel a little earlier,"
says Art. "He came to the office after he had a cartoon pub-
lished in Look magazine. It was just one of those classic
cartoons, with the single caption 'Now here's my plan.' Of
course, I was impressed. I saw his other stuff and knew
Hef had to see them. I got them together and they carried
the thing — they got close, the both of them — through
the years."

"That was the beginning of a lifelong personal
and professional relationship," says Hefner. "I didn't
have a lot of close personal friends working for
the magazine but Shel became one of my closest

friends, and so did LeRoy. Shel started hanging around the office a lot and he really
became part of the cadre of friends— and our resident humorist."

His Playboy debut came in August 1956. According to Art Paul, Shel and his cartoons
were introduced in memorable fashion. "The first thing of Shel's that appeared in
Playboy was an insert," Art recalls. "He was presented wonderfully in the sense that
it wasn't overdone. There wasn't a lot of shouting about having a new cartoonist, but
there was a great deal of attention gathered by the way we presented his first bit of
work— and it was a four-page insert. They were inserts on yellow paper and had one
cartoon on each page. Each cartoon was a little gem."

LeRoy Neiman was there from the earliest beginnings of Playboy, and he remem-
bers the camaraderie between himself, Shel and Hefner. He also remembers Hefner's
eye for talent— and his ability to bring that talent into the fold.

"When Shel came back from the army he had that book, Grab Your Socks, which
was really very different. Nobody had ever seen anything like that," says Neiman.
"And Hef was not only interested in snaring you, he was interested in tying you
down — we all .knew that by the talent around. He had me, and he had Jack Cole,
who was the best watercolor cartoonist that's ever been. Later Harvey Kurtzman
came in. Boy, those cartoonists — Hef had the eye to pick these guys out. But Shel
had something special."

Despite his early strides with Playboy, things didn't happen fast enough for Shel.
He decided to return to Japan, where his celebrity had led to better treatment than he
was getting in Chicago. "I had been in Japan and 1 d been a star, Silverstein recalled.

"Now I was nothing. I had already sold stuff
to Playboy and felt very good about it — and
even that wasn't enough."

Shel told Hefner his travel plans, and
Hef responded with a tempting offer. In
1986, Shel remembered it this way: "I decided
to go back to Japan, and Hef said, 'What
are you going to do?' I said, 'I'm going back
to live there.' He said, 'While you're there,
draw some stuff for us. Send it back.' And I
said, 'That's not why I'm going back. I don't
know what I'd draw.' And he said, 'Well,
you'll think of it,' and he paid for my boat
ticket over there. I agonized greatly about
it because I couldn't see what I would draw
about that would be good for Playboy. I never
wanted to do the sexy stuff. I wasn't going to

do that there. I didn't think they'd want general gags or subtle stuff. I didn't want to
draw about myself."

As Hef described in this book's Foreword, he was inspired by what Ernest
Hemingway had done — sending articles in letter form back to Esquire. "It was the
notion that Shel would be our traveling representative, sending back recollections
in the form of cartoons," says Hefner. "I wanted him, therefore, to include himself
in the cartoons. But Shel didn't want to include himself. He really didn't think they
would work. I said, 'Well, you try it. If it doesn't work, okay — but let's see.'"

Let's see, indeed.

The adventures began in May 1957 with "Return to Tokyo" and ended in the

summer of 1968 with the two-part
comic epic "Silverstein Among the
Hippies." Over the course of eleven
years there were twenty-three epi-
sodes.

This wasn't all Shel did with
Playboy — for his was a lifetime
association. Early on, he authored the
magazine's film-oriented parlor-game
book, Teevee Jeebies. Through the years
he contributed poems,
fables, songs, stories, a hilarious
three-part "History of Playboy " and
many other comic illustrations. His
work graced the pages of Playboy from
the 1950s through the 1990s — and

PLAYBOY

kmicnh stat on I/O

K* sm AND POSITION

|o. K.'lu|

» , u0V CMT you ourswets lbms ^ ^ Lofje ! * u “* ^ r

I? TO * 6 MM» I PCOtJSflCUOB S ! "

then again posthumously in 2001. The only other Playboy contributor to appear in every
decade— besides Hefner himself— is LeRoy Neiman, who enjoyed his own long-running

travel feature, "Man at His Leisure"

The direction of Shel's travel series was not charted
in advance — it was determined by a world of events and
his whimsy. Some cartoons in "Return to Tokyo" felt like
an extension of his work in Stars and Stripes, but Hef was
pleased with the illustrated visit and encouraged Shel
to continue his wandering ways, resulting in a quick
succession of trips to places like Scandinavia, London,
Russia, Paris, Italy and Spain.

In addition to his other responsibilities at Playboy,

Hef was the magazine's first cartoon editor. In the begin-
ning he was himself a cartoonist and he had an affinity
with his illustrators. Although Shel was given free rein
as to the topics, drawings and humor, Hef still offered
up a number of suggestions, and according to Shel's
friend Larry Moyer, "Shel thought that Hef was the best
cartoon editor around."

One way that this collection differs from Silversteins
other illustrated work is the premise of featuring himself

as the central character. Despite Shel's initial reservations, Hefner's editorial directive
had been astute, and the majority of the series showcased Shel in a variety of comic
situations.

"It's almost impossible to separate what Shel got out of this experience of putting
himself into it and what came out of it afterward," says Hefner. "It's all about the relation-
ship between him and the reader. That personal perception made this stuff so special.

He humanized the relationship between the peoples of the various cultures and various
countries so that it wasn't a continual 'them and us.' Because in the 1950s and throughout
the Cold War, there was a real 'them and us' mentality — even as there is today."

Demystifying indigenous cultures, foreign lands and odd social scenarios, Shel
depicted himself as a wandering Everyman. He lampooned the sad-but-true stereo-
types of the American tourist and maintained unusually sharp insights into human
nature. Shel's ironic perspective also captured the sexual ethos of the time.

"There are two kinds of artists," says LeRoy Neiman. "There's the introspective
artist who asks himself 'How do l feel?' and 'What do 1 think about this?' Then
you have the person who's aware of everything — everything in the room, every-
thing — wherever they go. They care about everything. That doesn't mean that
they don't care about themselves, but they are observers. Observing is an incred-
ible thing. To sit in a sidewalk cafe for an hour and observe people passing by is
one thing — but to observe all the time is something else. Everything."

Another difference between these Playboy portfolios and Shel's other illustra-
tions is the use of color overlays on his inimitable pen-and-ink drawings. For those
wondering why his trademark black-and-white style was not used, it was thanks
to the pragmatic sensibilities of Art Paul.

"Hef commissioned Shel to travel around and send back these autobiographical,
humoresque tales," says Paul.

"The layouts for these were six,
seven, eight pages of text. The
problem was that the magazine
as a whole needed color, and it
had little advertising at that time.

It needed a color punch and this
seemed to be an opportunity. I
knew it wouldn't make Shel
happy, and I would have pre-
ferred to leave it all black and
white, too. But then these color
blocks became part of the iden-
tity that went with his travel
cartoons. He really wanted some-
thing pure and simpler. So, that
was unfortunate. I think I can
take the blame for it."

"A.WP*Jo Twe 6©o0 KltJD LIOKJ Ur THE LfTT C-E Mr wS*r fro AUJ> LATwi*. ioh 6A/

rue LIO AJ Kt> ffj A B/6 • AUD CoOLW'T 6-Kr <-<*>**- <S.*«Tvr(jL

CAMe TO MIS A/O AWD 1*0 TWF AMD fM/PO Jftf L IF0

The use of color did become part of Shel's travel pieces. Some of the episodes were
color-coded— red for Russia, blue for Switzerland, etc. But looking back, even Hugh
Hefner concurred with Art Paul's mea culpa. "I wish in retrospect
that I hadn't had Arthur add the color to the series," said Hef. "I
think Shel would have been much happier. Pure black and white,
that's the way it should have been."

Shel's early creativity was informed by an extensive artistic
groundswell. A perpetual houseguest at the Playboy Mansion, he
began painting and drawing (and traveling) with LeRoy Neiman. He
also became friendly with two young comics, Lenny Bruce and Bill
Cosby. He spent a lot of time at Chicago clubs like the Gate of Horn
and was tight with folksinger Bob Gibson. Maintaining an apartment
in Manhattan, Shel hung out with radio great Jean Shepherd and
playwright Herb Gardner. The sexual mystique of Playboy reflected
his lifestyle, and his adventurous spirit knew no bounds.

Another element unique to these early illustrations is Shel's use of detailing,
which serves as a contrast from the minimal leanings of his later work. His black-and-
white drawings already had a distinctive line style, and his vision seemed particularly
inspired by the romantic climes of Europe and the bohemian milieu of Greenwich
Village. Elaborate depictions of the Left Bank in Paris and the ruins of the Colosseum
in Rome indicate that he was stimulated as an illustrator and still evolving artistically.

Along with illustrations and dialogue, the series included photographs of Shel in
action, intending to prove that he'd actually visited the places rendered in his cartoons.
Inevitably, there would be a shot of Shel drawing on his sketch pad surrounded by curi-
ous locals who were often, coin-
cidentally, eager-looking young
women. But Shel met all sorts of
people in his travels, including
Larry Moyer, who became a life-
long friend and served as his pho-
tographer on several excursions.

"I met Shel in 1957 in Moscow
in Red Square," Moyer remembers.

"I looked over and I see this guy
sketching. You never see anybody
sketching in Red Square, especially
in 1957. He was drawing a Red
Army soldier, and when he got
to the bottom of the page there
wasn't enough room for his boots.

So he just crunched up the boots
in the drawing. That's how we
met, in front of the Kremlin."

PLAYBOY

v.*J - A.

Of course, with Playboy , sexuality was to be celebrated, and Shel explored this
subject with deft and self-effacing humor. Satirizing his man-on-the-make persona,
he portrayed the battle of the sexes in almost futile terms. Shel was more interested in
the human aspects of the sexual revolution — wanting it more than getting it, looking
more than touching, and highlighting "no" as one of the most discouraging words to
be heard in any language.

According to Moyer, Shel's method for gathering material was straightforward. "We
were looking for bad girls and good food. That was the bottom line," Moyer
recalls. "We'd go to a place we didn't know too much about. Before we could start
doing stuff he would have to learn something about the joint. We would hang out for
two or three weeks. Then Shel would sketch frantically for a few days and I would
shoot a shitload of pictures — and always get Shel with a broad. That was the thing. The
shot had to have some broads in there, and the better-looking the better!"

In addition to his ribald pursuits, Shel's journeys were a mix of typical sightseeing
and unorthodox stunts. In London he visited pubs and Trafalgar Square; in Switzerland
it was mountain climbing. He was fearless, and hunted big game while on safari in
Africa, felling a water buffalo. His momentous trip to Spain was split into two epi-
sodes: After learning flamenco and suggesting siestas with the senoritas, Shel put on a
matador's suit and/fought a bull, only to be gored (slightly) in the process.

The most significant moment in his travels occurred during the trip to Africa. He'd
been traveling from country to country, and after a successful safari expedition in
Uganda, Shel and photographer Pat Morin were in a traffic accident — a head-to-head
collision with a truck. The pair were badly injured and left alone on the side of the road
in the jungle, only to be rescued by a tourist couple that happened to be driving by.

Upon his return from Africa, Shel stayed closer to home, documenting a
number of adventures in the U.S. and Mexico before making a return trip to
London. He toured the newly added states of Alaska (where he panned for gold)
and Hawaii (where he tried to get lei'd), and explored conventional tourist destina-
tions like Miami and Hollywood. Profiling the scenes in Greenwich Village and
Haight-Ashbury may have been convenient — Shel kept homes in both locales — but
his incisive takes on the beat generation in 1960 and the hippie culture in 1968 were
right on time.

Despite the allure of the Playboy Mansion in Chicago, Shel made New York City
his main residence for years. "Shel was different," says Vic Lownes. "He was very
independent. The headquarters of Playboy were in Chicago but he stayed in Greenwich
Village. Although he would make extensive visits to the Mansion, this was where he
liked to be — in his part of town."

Shel's bohemian aesthetic brought him to the
nexus of the beatnik scene. He was familiar with
the folk community that gathered in Washington
Square Park, and he was well known at the coffee-
houses near Bleecker and MacDougal. Friendships
with wannabe poets, artists and writers enhanced
his comic portrayals in "Silverstein in Greenwich
Village," and he parodied the elements of "cool"
with great insight. X \

After his trips to the forty-ninth and fiftieth ( \

states, Shel went back to his own beginnings \

and fulfilled a lifelong dream of being on the / x
playing field with the Chicago White Sox. As a J
teenager, Shel had worked as a beer-and- //

hot-dog vendor at Comiskey Park, and he
remained a fan of the South Siders. Of course,
it was only spring training in Sarasota, Florida,
but the thrill of it all cannot be denied. Similar in spirit
to the amateur sporting efforts of George Plimpton, Shel's workouts
with the White Sox led him to meet stars like Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio — but
it was too bad he didn't get a chance to play with his idol, Minnie Minoso, who'd
recently been traded.

Hugh Hefner remembers Shel's passion for his hometown team. "There's an il-
lustration with the cartoon in Russia where someone says to him, 'Just think of it,
comrade — under the Communist system of equal distribution, once every eight years
the White Sox would win the pennantV "

One of the best-remembered episodes was Shel's 1963 visit to the Sunny Rest
Lodge in Palmerton, Pennsylvania. The ten-page extravaganza, "Silverstein in a Nud-
ist Camp," put a brave new spin on the Playboy lifestyle — with Shel at the forefront.
While Playboy had an illustrious history of revealing the female form, his bare-assed

appearance was rare, if not unusual, for the magazine. Larry Moyer suggested
they visit a nudist camp and brought him to Sunny Rest — and he served as the
feature's photographer.

"A lot of people don't want to be photographed at a nudist camp, because there
are a lot of secretaries and bank tellers, that kind of thing," says Moyer. "So, to
guarantee the layouts for the story, we brought models along for that particular job.
It was so great being in a nudist camp that we didn't want to put our clothes
on again after that. We drove all the way back to New York in this convertible

naked— me and Shel and the three models that we brought
with us. I think when we crossed the George Washington
Bridge, we knew, 'Well, maybe we better put some clothes
on.' Reluctantly!"

Their summer visit to the Cherry Grove district of
Fire Island was edgier still, as Shel and Larry mingled with
the island's vacationing gay population. Using his illustra-
tions to challenge and exploit sexual stereotypes, "Silverstein
on Fire Island" comically ventured where no (straight) man had
gone before. "When we were on Fire Island, nobody was mak-
ing passes at us," Moyer says. "So we started thinking— what's
wrong with us?"

"One thing I have to say about Shel," Moyer adds.

"He was one of the funniest guys I ever knew — and it

was never at anybody’s expense. A lot of humor is based on putting other
people down. I don't remember one time Shel ever put anybody down in his
work — and that's something."

By the latter 1960s, Shel was gaining status as a children's author and
a songwriter — and his career was still intertwined with the popularity of
Playboy. With his return to swinging London in 1967, it was obvious that
times had changed— his reputation now preceded him and the magazine
was a household word. He was still sketching in Trafalgar Square and
schmoozing guards at Buckingham Palace, but he was also spotted lunching
with Twiggy and gambling at the Playboy Club's chic London casino.

In the summer of 1968, Playboy published the two-part classic
"Silverstein Among the Hippies." The hippie episodes turned out to be
the last of his travel series, but they also showcased Shel at his creative
best. With the pages saturated in psychedelic coloring, his illustrations
were fluid, bold and sure-handed. He was already familiar with the
San Francisco scene and had a houseboat in Sausalito. Amid frolicking
spoofs on free love and hippie drug culture, he made some of his most
succinct social commentaries. The progressive Playboy philosophy had
merged with the idealistic values of the Love Generation— and it looked a
lot like Shel Silverstein.

Other than a retrospective article in 1971, this was the conclusion
of "Silverstein Around the World." There were further adventures left un-
documented, including trips to Tahiti and Thailand and a return to Japan,
but numerous artistic endeavors took his attention away from Playboy and

Shel's contributions to the magazine became more sporadic. Never again would his
work be so overtly autobiographical.

Shel remained productive until his death in 1999. He was still drawing, writing
songs, composing poems, making records and putting on plays. There was a collection of
adult illustrations. Different Dances, and his poetry book Falling Up became yet another
bestseller. He worked on a collection of illustrated spoonerisms for more than twenty-
five years, called Runny Babbit, which was published posthumously.

Looking back, Shel told Hugh Hefner, " I find that the things of value to me have
become quite clear — that the times of closeness with real friends is becoming the most
valuable thing of all. So the travel for me has almost no value anymore. Seeing what?
They're only places with people like myself. If you want to show me a mountain. I've
seen some high mountains, and I've seen what men can do with the pyramids. I've seen
the tropics and so what? If I've created an image of a world traveler and adventurer, and

RETURN TO TOKYO

MAY 1957

cartoonist silverstein takes a sentimental journey

S cHiCKi.ESS shel silverstejn, the bril-
liant, bearded cartoonist whose work
appears regularly in playboy, served
most of a two year army hitch with the
staff of the Pacific Stars and Stripes ,
bringing a bit of satirical sunlight into
the dark days of the Korean occupation.
The indigestion that followed the
GIs’ bouts with army chow was alle-
viated to some extent when they’d
open the pages of S&S and see a Silver-
stein mess sergeant admonishing his
underlings with, “OK, who’s been sneak-
ing meat into the hamburger?” And
every joe who ever received a dressing-

down from the military police could
chuckle sardonically over the drawing
in which one surly MP whispered to
another, “Psst . . . Merry Christmas!”
Shel has confessed that the enthusiastic
reception given his cartoons by fellow
GIs was the second nicest experience of
his life. The first was being stationed
in Japan.

Sitting in front of his drawing board
in our offices, Shel has often leaned
back in his chair and reminisced about
the Land of the Rising Sun. “In Japan,
it's different,” he has said on more than
one occasion, never bothering to define

it. “You’re treated like a very special
fellow in Japan— especially by the
women. The country really looks like
those old Japanese prints. I love the
place. I love everything about it— the
people, the culture, the way it looks,
the way it sounds, the way it smells. I’m
going to go back some day,”

Shel Silverstein has done just that,
as the first stop in a trip around the
world for playboy. He took his sketch-
book with him, at our suggestion, and
we received these impressions of a re-
visited Tokyo just a few days before
this issue went to press.

"By God,

the Orient! "

c; uoo

MAW j

Miss — which way to the Imperial Gardens?'

"But, Martha, where would we put it?"

JULY 1957

"You'll like Urla... she's a typical Norwegian girl...
blonde hair. . .blue eyes... nice figure ... tall ... "

S1LVERSTEIN

SCANDINAVIA

the further wanderings of
playboy’s bearded
cartoonist at large

FROM THE LAND OF THE RISING SI N,

where he sketched his impressions for
our May issue. Shcl Silverstein flew
the great circle route, touching down
briefly in Anchorage, Alaska, to the
Land of the Midnight Sun — Scan-
dinavia. the home of the Vikings,
Ibsen, Grieg, Strindberg, Ekberg,
Kierkegaard, smorgasbord, sex
changes and the Swedish massage.
Our bearded ambassador-with-port-
folio called us. collect, from Copen-
hagen to make certain his Scandi-
navian sketches had arrived safely.
They had, and included with them
w r as a brief written report on his per-
sonal adventures: “This has been

one of the most hectic months of my
life,” he wrote. "After touring Nor-
way and Sweden, I settled down in
Copenhagen, where I thought my
beard would permit me to blend
quietly in with the Danes, many of
whom are also bearded. I couldn’t
have been more wrong. Due in large
part to this damned beard, I (1) be-
came involved in a barroom brawl

"If you're a girl, how about
having dinner with me tonight?"

(which I won) over a woman (which
I lost) , (2) worked as a solo wash-
board and featured vocalist (because
I spoke the best English) of Papa
Bue’s Bearded Viking New Orleans
Danish Jazz Band (a very popular
group until I joined them) , (3) suf-
fered a slightly broken foot, acquir-
ing a limp, a cane and a very glamor-
ous air, (4) was under observation
and investigation as a 'Russian
Agent* because I was seen entering
the Russian Embassy in quest of a
visa, and (5) became involved in a
brief but glorious romance which
I’m not telling any 1,000,000 play-
boy readers about. As of this writing,
my foot, heart and political standing
are all in pretty good shape.

"Room for one more... 1 '

Silverstein sings the blues with the
Bearded Viking New Orleans Jazz Band.

—

"Well, my goodness ... Are all American
girls built like Jayne Mansfield?...

Are all Italian girls built like Sophia
Loren?. . .Are all. . ."

IN LONDON

OCTOBER 1957

SILVERSTEIN
in LONDON

pictorial

VIA THE MAY AND JULY issues of PLAYBOY,
cartoonist Shel Silverstein has whisked
us to Japan (where he was asked “Is it
true what they say about American wom-
en?'’) and Scandinavia (where he was
featured vocalist of Papa Bue’s Bearded
Viking New Orleans Danish Jazz Band).
Both of these far-flung lands were lov-
ingly limned in on-the-spot sketches
bearing the saucy Silverstein stamp.

This month, his sketch pad sparkles
with his impressions of the world’s larg-
est, grandest city: venerable and vener-
ated London, the home of a teeming
eight million people, the seat of mighty
kings and queens, the nucleus of a once-
vast empire, the city that looked upon
Augustine and William Shakespeare.

Shel's view of London is not quite so
lofty as all that, but it’s pretty obvious
he agrees wholeheartedly with Poet
Laureate John Masefield’s wann words
about the place: “Oh London Town’s a
fine town, and London sights are rare./
And London ale is right ale, and brisk's
the London air.” Fine, rare, right and
brisk as the age-old city itself are these
drawings from a puckish pen.

playboys

wandering beard
beards the british

lion in its den

The bobby and the beard: Shel and a cop
collaborate in drawing a London landscape.

. .America! . . .Where
you from?"

"Say, you fellows have really picked up
on our Ivy League styles haven't you?"

¥ V

SILVERSTEIN in LONDON, continued

Shel makes a new friend in Trafalgar Square.

"Blimey, gov, arfter 'oppin' about Tokyo an'
Scarndenyvia, hit must be a ruddy joy ter
'ear English spoke again. .. Lor, I recalls
one noight I were 'avin' a bit o' bingo in a
pub in Swyden, when I spies this 'ere chaffer
'avin' a pot o' four arf at the near an'
far — regular cheese she were an' up the pole
t'boot. I were a bit squiffy from the bubbly
m' self an' I figured, ''ere's a bit o'
Roger, sure as eggs is eggs,' when ' rarnd
the Johnny Horner pops this rorty, gallows-
faced cabbage gelder. Lori Big as th' bloody
tower, 'e were — 25 stone at least — an' 'e
were browned off proper: 'All roight, ye
randy, beef-witted, hobnailer, ' 'e says
t'me, ''op it, afor yer gets a slosh in the
gob. This 'ere's m' lawful blanket! ' 'In
yer 'at, 'arry,' says I. Well, sir, 'e
'its me a gooser on the bread pan an'..."

"I believe I can say with assurance, sir, that Princess Margaret will
not be interested in appearing as January's Playmate of the Month..."

IN PARIS

JANUARY 1958

SILU ERSTEin in PIIRI5

with the world’s most romantic city

shel silverstein has visited and sketched
some lore-and-legend-haunted ports of
call for these pages: Tokyo, Scandinavia
and London are all atmospheric places
packed with color, flavor and historic
grandeur, and the antic Silverstein
spirit responded to them with whimsy
and warmth. But, to twist an old ballad,
“no place on earth does he love more
sincerely” — than Paris.

The same city that inspired Toulouse
and Zola, Villon and Voltaire, Dumas,
both ptre and fils ; the city of Nostra-
damus and Notre Dame, Baudelaire and
Brigitte Bardot, Fontaine and Fernan-
del — this city inspired Silverstein as

well, and no wonder, for Paris (which
more than one man has called the place
good Americans go to when they die)
is a city steeped in seductiveness, richly
redolent of romance, a city few fellows
of taste have been able to resist — not
even sour Nietzsche w r ho said, “As an
artist, a man has no home in Europe
save in Paris.*’

As an artist, Shel Silverstein had a
wonderful time creating the labor of
love that begins on this page — a plcas-
ureful portfolio of zestful, winsome,
finely funny impressions of a 2000-year-
old city that captured his heart and
swept him off his feet.

"Well, that depends, monsieur. .. If you face east, this is the left bank
...If you face west, that is the left bank... If you face south..."

"With all the American tourists arriving, monsieur, these small, dark,
dingy garrets are quite expensive. However, if you’d consider a large,
clean, well— lit room on the first floor... ff

"A bottle of absinthe. . .a
checkered tablecloth . . . a

candle in a wine bottle..."

"Fellows, meet Shel Silverstein from Chicago.
Shel, shake hands with Eddie Bell from Los
Angeles, Charley Petersen from Boston, Steve
Zimmerman from St. Louis and Jim Albright from
New Jersey . "

"Listen to this: 'Good-bye

Paris, old friend, old com-
rade, old drinking companion,
with your flaky green trees
and your warm, playful sun and
your friendly open-arm cafes,
with your busy Seine and buzz-
ing streets and bustling shops
and children's laughter and
lovers . . . lovers . . . lovers . . .
You'll not miss me, Paris, al-
though you were a good friend.
The publishers doubted me,
Paris, and the landlords and
shopkeepers rejected me... and
Arlette . . . Arlette . . . Arlette
deserted me. But you remained
loyal... you were a good friend,
Paris. . .adieu. . .mon ami. . .adieu
...' Man, that's what I call
writing! "

"Er. . .darling, je vous aime
beaucoup. . . je ne sais pas what
do . . . morning, noon and
nighttime, too. .. touj ours won-
dering what to do. . . er. . .
cherie ..."

Assuming the famous hat, cane and stature (by kneeling on his shoes) of
another artist inspired by Paris, Shel makes striking Toulouse-Lautrec.

you let Audrey Hepburn dance in the
street . . .you let. . . "

’’Look at this place, Paul — no heat, no electricity,
crawling with bugs, no icebox, no ventilation, no
bathtub, no toilet, nothing to eat but a few scraps
of bread and cheap wine. Frankly, I don't see how
you manage to stay alive, Paul . . . Paul? . . . Paul? . . . "

Silverstein makes friends easily.
Here a long-tressed Parisienne kib-
itzes as he sketches in street cafe.

"What is this thing called
an American kiss?"

IN MOSCOW

MARCH 1958

LVERSTEIN IN

ehind the iron curtain with playboy’s unguided missile

tic shel si lverstein, having
l into many a country
a clime during his sketching
world, started to amble into
d stubbed his toe on a certain
Jndaunted. he resorted to sub-
and tried to get in as a tourist.
He then tried again as a jotir-
inally he passed himself
er of an American youth
is luxuriant chin-spinach),
editors of playboy re-
ane call from a “Mr.
in Moscow, who told us in
familiar voice that his mis-
accomplished and then
oo long after, we received

a bulky package of Moscow cartoons and
photos, accompanied by a letter from
Shel, scrawled on a gigantic page of his
sketch pad. It read, in part:

. As far as my personal adventures
in Moscow are concerned, I have been
bothered by no one and nothing — ex-
cept amoebic dysentery, which I found
to be scientifically no more advanced
than American amoebic dysentery. The
people on the streets of Moscow are the
friendliest and wannest I’ve met on my
travels . . . prices are tremendously high
. . . the girls are lovely (photographic
proof of this enclosed). I talked with the
editors and cartoonists of Krokodil, Rus-
sia's biggest humor magazine, and had
a chance to meet many young artists.

Nothing very funny is happening to me
here. Moscow is a pretty serious place,*’
Meanwhile, back at the playboy
building, the staff sweated out some
anxious moments when it was learned
that a dozen members of the youth rally
had accepted an invitation into Red
China, minus State Department blessing,
and were in danger of losing their pass-
ports. Might Shel be one of these reck-
less youths? we wondered. Assurance
was forthcoming in good time: no. said
Shel in another letter, the temptation
had been easy to resist because he
needed that passport to get him into all
the other faraway places with strange-
sounding names ripe for sketching by
Silverstein.

M Just think of it, comrade — under the Communist system of equal distribution,
once every eight years the White Sox would win the pennant ! "

"Gee, Natasha — you mean you Russians
invented this? ! "

Shel sketches changing of the honor
guard in front of Lenin-Stalin tomb.

"Well anyway, there aren't any hidden microphones."

A truckload of girls from a collective farm
near Moscow came to the big city on a visit
and stopped long enough to dance the gopak
with Shel right in the middle of the street.

A Soviet army officer's interest is piqued. Soon
after, Shel was surrounded by a curious crowd.

"We Russian cartoonists have the same freedom as
you Americans — you 1 re allowed to criticize America
in your cartoons, and we 1 re allowed to criticize
America in ours."

Wherever he goes, even to a Russian rail-
road station, Silverstein finds pretty girls.

IN ITALY

JUNE 1958

pictorial

our boy
capishes
and finds it

delicious

T he i.ambent land of Italy is the home
of mandolins and macaroni, olive oil
and opera, gorgonzola and gondolas.
Without it, there would be no Venetian
glass, Florentine leather, Neapolitan ice
cream or Roman fever. We of America
are especially indebted to it: Cristoforo
Colombo discovered us and Amerigo
Vespucci lent us his name. We have a
town called Italy, three called Rome, five
each called Naples, Venice and Verona,
and we also have an airfield called La
Guardia. Our language is studded with
snappy words on lend-lease from Italy:
tempo , fiasco, piano, umbrella, stucco,
fresco, ditto, volcano, casino, bordello,
incognito, quota, soda, stanza, vista, ven-
detta, manifesto, motto and mah-rone!
And what do we call that leaning-tower-
type type in which the foregoing string
of words is printed? Italic. The Boot
meets The Beard this month as the
fine Italian hand of Shel Silverstein
— playboy’s ambulating americano —
sketches sunny Italy.

SILVERSTEIN

"I don't know the exact address, but
it's right behind a church..."

"It's really a very
simple dish... you
take a flat piece of dough...
cover it over with
tomato sauce . . . chop
in chunks of Italian
sausage, mushrooms and

anchovies. .. top it
all with melted
provolone cheese
and bake . "

She! Silverstein draws a Roman crowd in more ways tho one.

"Perhaps, signore, we could make your wishes come true without
wasting your coins on this silly fountaih..."

"Now remember ... nothing A.D....we only have time for B.C."

"Viva la pasta!" says Shel as he shovels in the spaghetti.

"Marge — Marge Wilson ! Why, I
haven't seen you since high school!’

"Gondola, signore? Three
thousand lire for the
first hour... two thousand
for each additional hour. . .
a small additional charge
if you wish accordion music
or romantic arias..."

ft"

"...Most American tourists, they see nothing ... they
waste their time running through the ruins of the

Forum, they take photographs of San Pietro, they

throw coins into Trevi Fountain, they burrow into

the catacombs, they whisk through the Colosseum and

the Pantheon and the museums all the day and sit and
drink and dance in the Via Veneto cabarets all night
.but you . signore, you are seeing the real Rome! !

IN SWITZERLAND

NOVEMBER 1958

"Swiss pipe, Swiss cane,
Swiss hat, Swiss shorts,
Swiss boots... Must be
an American tourist."

SILVERSTEIN IN SWITZERLAND

our roistering roamer digs the land of ventilated cheese

"Don't you want the thrills? The
peril? The excitement? The..."

Tjr annibal needed a whole menagerie of
” elephants, horses, donkeys and leop-
ards-with-spears-attached to get him over
the Alps, but Shel Silverstein needed
only his sketchbook, his pencil, his beard
and his lively curiosity. Entering Switzer;
land, Shel got right into the spirit of
things (as he always does)— donning the
required sweater, Lederhosen and pointy,
shaving-brushed hat; investigating the
cuckoo clock situation; checking out the
native quail; venturing a scratchy yodel
and blowing hot bells with a combo of
Swiss bell-ringers. He also found time to
sketch his own highly personal impres-
sions of Switzerland for pi.ayboy.

"Well, I’ve tasted better brandy..."

tW/

"You realize of course, Miss Gruber, that the slightest
noise on your part could send thousands of tons of snow
and ice avalanching down. . .crushing us to an agonizing,
suffocating end... and bringing death and destruction to
the innocent people of that picturesque village below...

"Yes, sir, give me a mountain any time. You conquer a
mountain and it stays conquered! Does a mountain ever
keep you waiting for hours? No! Does a mountain ever
lie to you or try to squeeze money out of you? No!
Does a mountain ever leave a lot of dirty lingerie
cluttering up the bathroom? No! Does a mountain ever
go off cheating on you the minute your back is turned?
Does a mountain ever run off with some shoe salesman
from Detroit, Michigan? HelJL, noli

IN SPAIN

MARCH 1959 | APRIL 1959

SILVERSTEIN IN SPAIN

the rain in SPAIN was mainly on the
wane while Silverstein was there —
for in addition to the well-known
Hispanic sun, there was Shel’s own
private stock of sunshine which he
never fails to sneak past Customs
wherever he goes.

In Spain, he visited the tradition-
rich towns of Madrid, Seville and
Granada. In true Silverstein style, he
plunged heart, soul and beard into
several old Spanish customs. He
donned native attire, danced the
flamenco, clicked castanets, rode a
burro, drank out of wineskins, ate
fried bananas, garlic soup and paella ;
he even fought a bull. “Ava Gardner
was there at the same time,” Shel
confided to us. “We never met.”

shel sketches the siesta set:
the first of a two-part portfolio

You mean there isn't anyplace

in this whole town where a guy
can buy some tranquilizers??"

"Well, if you
wanted to sketch
peons in se rapes and
wide sombreros,
senor, you should
have gone to
Mexico ... if you
wanted to
see hat dancing,
you should have
gone to Mexico . if
you wanted to
eat tacos and drink
tequila, you
should have gone
to Mexico ,
if you ... "

/ t / 4 r v f_

OK, but now let's look
at it from the
bullfighter ' s point
of view! . .

"That is the picador, senor. After the colored ribbons of the
breeding ranch have been stuck into the bull, he drives his spike

deep into the bull's neck — then the bandenlleros plant their
banderillas into his back, then the matador, after his muleta work.

will drive his sword in over the horns — and the bull will I an,

then the cachetero will stab the bull with his puntilla and will
cut off his ears and tail ... then, senor. if you have a weak
stomach I would advise you to leave at that moment, because then . . .

"That bull you see there
is a coward, senor — he
has been tried
in a tienta and found to
have no courage. He
shall never know the ex-
citement of the corrida —
he shall never see the flash

of the cape, hear the roar
of the crowd, feel the honor

of dying gloriously and
bravely. No, senor, this bull
must spend his entire cowardly

life here among the cows."

i a barba (the beard) is what the citizens
of Seville called the world’s only whis-
kered bullfighter, Shel Silverstein. Gags
about La Barba of Seville would seem in
order, but these would tend to tarnish
the glamor and dignity of the noble
corrida tradition, so we will refrain. Be-
fore matching wits with el toro, Shel
trained for a month at the ranch of
Count Maza, just outside Seville. His in-
structors were Tito Palacios and John
Short, both bullfighters of note, the
latter a compatriot of Silverstein’s. After
mastering such intricate passes as the

veroyiica, the chicuelina and the goa-
nrra, Shel donned the resplendent suit
of lights, strode majestically through the
gates of fear and faced the bull in the
formal dance of death. “After that bout,
I was known as El Corazdn del Polio,”
Shel says, insisting that it means The
Lion-Hearted even when we opened our
Spanish dictionary and showed him that
polio means “chicken.” Did Shel kill the
bull? “No.” he admits, “but on the other
hand, the bull didn’t kill me. I still have
a slight scar on the, uh, hip, though,
where his horn grazed me.” jOle!

"Nothing fancy, now

"Now watch him
closely — see how
he favors

his right hand — now
he's doing a revolera —
best thing for
a revolera is to stop
short and catch him
in the middle
of his swirl — now
he's doing a right-
handed round pass.

If you can — fake him
off to the left
and then bring your
horns up fast
and to the right and
pow ! Now watch
this — he's trying
a desplante. This
is really fun.

You wait until he's
kneeling directly in
front of you
and then ..."

too-brave bull bring high drama to la fiasla brava.

"Well for goodness' sake, what on earth
do I want with those filthy

old bull 1 s ears ! "

AMONG THE ARABS

/mono

"Pssst — a word of warning,
o bearded one —
beware the fatal
charms of Fatima, of

the flashing eyes,
who dances nightly
at the Casbah Club, 23 Rue

sheik shel in the land of
dervishes and dromedaries

“i’ll sing thee songs of Araby,” said Silverstein as
he departed for that locality, “and tales of fair Kash-
mir.” Or, anyway, he said something to that effect.
On foot and on camel, he roamed North Africa, visit-
ing Tangier, Cairo, Rabat and Casablanca, where he
swears he saw individuals remarkably like Claude
Rains, Paul Henreid, Ingrid Bergman and other old
Warner Brothers types lurking behind the mosques
and minarets. “But they may have been mirages,” he
adds; “that desert sun . . Even though he was not
invited to come to the casbah, Shel was enthralled by
the land of the Arabs. “And I was pleased to learn
that the barbaric practice of buying and selling beau-
tiful young women has been abolished,” he scowled.

how you of the west
could carry so many

things with your hands . M

"You refuse to buy
my souvenirs,
you refuse to save
my wives and

children from starvation,

you refuse to aid

our tottering economy,

o foolish one —

you drive us into

the arms of

the Communists!"

"But it is
form fitting."

"These are my sisters —
Aicha, Zohra and Halima.

Halima is the shy one."

"Sure I'll say,

'Alms for the love of

Allah, ' but not for
a lousy 20 francs!"

Arrayed in the fez and galabia of
ert chieftain, Shel glowers from his

"... Or how about a
camel alone on the
desert saying, 'I'd
walk a mile for a
Camel.' Get it?

Or maybe you can
draw a pack of
camels. Get it?

A pack of Camels ?

Ha! Or maybe you
can draw a camel
trying to squeeze
through the eye
of a needle. Or how
about a camel
salesman saying,

'One lump or two?'
Get it? 'One lump or
two 1 ' Or how
about a. . . "

Silverstein strolls through a suk, or outdoor market, of
Marrakech, alongside the veiled women of an exotic culture.

"I don't know which one is ME I"

IN AFRICA

OCTOBER 1959

SILVERSTEIN

AFRICA

THE FABLF.D thrills of big-game hunt-
ing in Africa are too enticing for the
wandering adventurer to resist for long.
Accordingly, after sketching the Arabs,
Shel Silverstein went on safari. He
proved hunter enough to fell a water
buffalo, called the most dangerous game.

As our regular readers well know by
now, Shel has traveled yon, hither and
thither for playboy these past two years,
enjoying adventures in Japan, Scandi-
navia, England, France, Russia, Italy,
Switzerland, Spain and Araby with
hardly a scratch on the tough Silverstein
hide (he doesn’t count the minor wound
received in a Spanish bullring). But, re-
turning from this safari in Central
Africa, driving along the nearly deserted
road to Kampala in Uganda, Shel and
photographer-friend Pat Morin collided
head on with a truck full of natives.
Both men were badly hurt, Shel with his
side caved in and left leg slashed open.
They asked the natives to take them to
a hospital, but the aborigines would do

nothing without payment, and the
minds of the two men were so fogged by
shock they couldn’t remember where
they had put their money. The natives
left them lying by the side of the road.
Hours passed under the white-hot
African sun and the two men, unable
to move, calculated that they would al-
most certainly die from their wounds and
exposure, if prowling lions, drawn by
the scent of blood, didn’t eat them first.

Near dusk, a car carrying a Scottish
couple came down the road. They took
the injured pair 40 miles over a rough
and rocky road to a tiny four-bed hos-
pital at Fort Portal. Shel was hospital-
ized for three months; he came out of
the experience 50 pounds lighter, his
beard eight inches longer, toting a cane
for a persistent, perhaps perpetual limp.
But the Silverstein spirit remained un-
daunted: he brought back to the U.S. a
sketch pad full of his humorous personal
impressions of the Dark Continent.

shel courts danger as a big-game hunter on safari

"To be honest with you, Silverstein,
you've given me the greatest challenge

in my 23 years as a white hunter.
I've found lions for Hemingway...

I've found white rhino for Gunther...

I've found Mau Mau for Ruark...

But 18-year-old blue-eyed blondes —

that's really going to take some doing."

"Now these little white things
called aspirins. You take two with a
glass of water and in
10 minutes. . .headache gone!"

W/%jj

"What do you mean — you just remembered

you can't stand the sight of blood?!"

Having just felled a water buffalo, Silverstein strikes the
classic pose of the triumphant hunter. The feat was accom-
plished in Ubangi country, where Shel hoped to see the fabled "...And if you see

saucer-lipped women. He saw none. "Progress!" he snorted. Edgar Rice Burroughs ,

tell him for me
he's an ungrateful, cheap,
plagiarizing, thieving...."

"I guess I'd better explain this in a hurry.

This is the bolt... after each round you pull it back
and the shell ejects. This is your rear sight...
you line this up with your front sight,

allowing for windage and. "

"I send your message to Gulu, Bwana. . .

Gulu drummer relay message to Mombasa.
Mombasa drummer relay message to Kantaga. . .

Kantaga drummer relay message to Usumbura. . .
Usumbura has no drummer, so they telephone

message to Kampala. . .Kampala drummer...."

Rifle in hand, cartoonist Silverstein wades in the
hippo-infested waters of Lake George in Uganda.

Watusi children contribute to Shel's sketch pad. Shel claims
the adult Watusi "aren't as tall as they were in King Sol-
omon's Mines." He also claims "the pygmies aren't as short/ 7

n ...And so the good kind lion let the little mousey go free
and later when the lion was trapped in a big net

and couldn't get loose, the grateful mousey came to his aid
and gnawed through the net and saved his life and...."

IN GREENWICH VILLAGE

SEPTEMBER 1960

0/ felSWau

"They're talking about us all over the Village — down
at the Figaro, over at Whalen's, down at Joe's, up at
the Bagel — they r re all saying we're not sleeping
together. Now maybe you don't give a damn what people
think, but I dol"

Sfwfttt IN GREENWICH VILLAGE

our globetrotting cartoonist reports on a beat and bizarre segment of the american scene

shel silverstein, the free-wheeling humorist who has sketched many of
the world's most exotic lands for playboy, has been living in Greenwich
Village for the past year, recuperating from wounds incurred on safari
(Silverstein in Africa, playboy, October 1959), working at drawing board
and recording studio (his disc, Hairy Jazz, was reviewed in February’s
Playboy After Hours), and just generally absorbing. Before long, lie will jour-
ney forth again to far-flung places, but in the meantime he has set down
his impressions of a locale in many ways as exotic as any he visited across
the great waters. A whole new philosophy, called Beat, blossomed forth
in America while he was away, and it took root in the Village. On these
pages, Shel depicts this town-within-a-town in all its beat and bawdy glory.

Spring in the Village

"OK, then it's all set — Georgia, you
oommit suicide by jumping off the
Washington Square Arch, Ty photographs
him in mid-air and sells the picture to
the Daily News, Ted writes a short story
about him and sells it to The
New Yorker. Herb writes a play about
him and sells it to the Phoenix Theatre,
Lou writes a folk song about him and
records it for Decca, John writes a
poem about him and sells it to Harper's,
I do a movie scenario starring Gene and
Lois and sell it to Hollywood, Vern
paints a. . . "

"Well how do you know you can't play
'Stardust' if you've never tried play-
ing 'Stardust'?"

"What do you mean, "First of all,

you’d sooner have a Marlboro?!!..." you’re not thinking like a swan..."

"Boy, you should hear the lines of bull these guys give me. Some come on like lest
little boys — they need me to mother them — what a laugh! Then the hippies, they c me
on cool — they will ’let me make it if I dig to!’ Hal! Then the college boys f M
the Bronx — they want something sincere — an ’intellectual relationship.’ Some ry
to overwhelm me — they say, ’I don’t know you, but I want your body!!' Some come on
gay and want me to help them be men again. Brother! How corny can you get? And yet
they keep giving me these same square stories to get me to go to bed with them. Bu II
Pure bull! I don’t know why I always go."

"Marie?"

"What, baby?"

"Why don’t you like me, Marie?"
"Baby, I dig you the end."

"You dig me? Does that mean you
like me?"

"You’re too much, baby, too much!"
"Too much what , Marie?"

"Tooooo much. . .you’re something
else 1 ’’

"What else, Marie — I don’t
understand???"

"You are the end. Uncool, man, but
like I groove behind you!!"

"Marie, I..."

"Let’s split, baby."

"You want to split up? You want
me to go away?"

"No, baby, but this scene drags
me ... I am bugged ..."

"You me^n the mosquitoes, Marie?

I think the light attracts "

"Let’s cut out to your pad, baby.

I dig to wail ..."

"You mean, to cry, Marie? Did I
say anything. . . ?"

"To ball, baby. . .1 dig to ball.. .

"Whatever I said, I’m sorry, Marie.
Here, use my handkerchief..."

"Man, later I "

"Later what, Marie? Do you want
my handkerchief later? I don’t
under "

"No, man, like forget it!"

"Marie ..."

"What?"

"May I hold your hand?"

"And every night at twelve-fifteen there she
was at the stage door — waiting, so I
figured, well, it won’t do any harm to say
hello. So I did, and the next thing I knew we
were having coffee, and then I found myself
taking her to dinner that Saturday, and I told
her we could only be friends, and I explained
all about Harvey and me, but the next thing I
knew I was seeing her every night and sending
her flowers and writing her poems, and I can’t
sleep and I keep thinking about her, and I think
I'm falling in love with her!... I'm going to see
a psychiatrist."

"OK, baby, now let me lay the ground rules on
you. First of all, if you hit a fair ball to a
fielder who is stoned, it’s an automatic double.
If you lose a sandle running to first, you’re
out. No smoking when you're on base and no
hiding the ball in your beard. No fooling with
the chicks except between innings. Now their
butch right fielder has power, so keep the ball
low to her. Their shortstop is great, but he
should be busted by the fuzz by the third
inning. Now the ump is a Method actor, so..."

Top: the less-than-silver Silverstein voice is raised in ethnic song, to
the delight of professional folksinger Jo March. Bottom: Shel evaluates
the work of a fair artist at an artists' fair on the Village sidewalks.

"Ernie... seeing as how I'm new in
the Village. . .and seeing as how this
is our first date... a blind date...
and since we don't really know each
other very well yet... would it be
all right if... would it be all right
if we went to bed after the movie?"

"Gosh, Louise — the last time I saw you, you were voted Miss
Ohio State of 1956. . .now you'll have to fill me in from there. . ."

IN ALASKA

MAY 1961

,f GIDDYAP . . .er. . .LET'S GO. . .uh. . .what the hell is that word?! j GET ALONG, LITTLE D ;IES.

packed in a parka and humming Midnight Sun, our be-
bristled cartoonist Shel Silverstein recently stomped
through the snows of Alaska and found the last frontier
to be a magnificent land of warm-hearted Eskimos and
hard-drinking settlers. Snowshoeing and dogsledding his
way, Shel mushed on to Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kotzebue,
Nome and Point Barrow on the frosty Arctic Ocean.
There’s still gold in them thar hills, he discovered, but
more panning is done by north country film critics than
by adventuresome treasure seekers. Putting the lie to a
crop of Hollywood fictions, Shel found nary an igloo,
but did find an array of Eskimos weary of flicks about
intrigue in the ice domes. Another myth exploded by
Shel was the one about the accommodating Eskimo hus-
band and the itinerant tourist. “It simply isn’t so,”
moaned Shel. What impressed him the most? The stun-
ning scenery and the innate good sense of the people.
“Shooting a moose out of season,” Shel says, “is con-
sidered a worse offense than shooting your wife.”

ALASKA

our own

abominable snowman
sketches the
49th state

"You see, you pack the snow into bails f|
ike this, then you choose up sides and..|

"Sure, it would be fun,
but I'd have to take off
my outer parka, then my fur
parka, and then I’d have to
take off my sealskin vest,
and then my sweaters, and
then I'd have to take
off my flannels, and by
that time I'd be too tired."

Above: shaggy Shel joins in a local bounce-the-
Eskimo rite. Foraging hunters devised this stunt
to sight the next meal over the next hill. Be-
low: Shel and a crusty gold-rush vet compare pans
in reconfirming the adage about all that glitters.

r v

V ’

"Tell me, Ara, how did that silly
nose-rubbing story get started, anyway?"

"Why, those are
the Northern Lights,
what did you think?"

"You see, back home we always believed the stories that you guys wanted a visitor to
sleep with your wives... that you'd be insulted if he didn’t sleep with your wives. . .that.

Now that Alaska has become the forty-ninth
state, do you feel that the influence
exerted politically by the state will
affect national and international
policies to such an extent that our
economic horizons will eventually..."

"OK, OK, so the hamburger was tough. What
do you expect for a lousy $3.75, anyway?!"

i-L

"Let's see now — interesting characters
that I knew during the gold rush... well,
there was Suicide Laura, and Diamond
Tooth Lou, and Dolly the Virgin, and
the Never Eat Sisters ... there was the
Gimme Kid, and the Baroness, and Black
Jim Wilson, and the Ham and Egg Twins,
and Fugemall Jack, and Bullcow Nelson,
and the Scurvy Kid, and the Crooked Kid,
and Inandout, and Queen Bess... but they
weren't really very interesting..."

IN HAWAII

,1 a-neh*

■ * '** l£

. ' ±+ k .\ v.

Sir*--'* ‘ { . > f

JUNE 1961

"Aloha, sir... and I hope you enjoy Hawaii, sir.,
and it's spelled 1-e-i, sir...
and I've heard that joke 3,227 times, sir..."

humor

our bearded beachcomber says aloha to the fiftieth state

Top to bottom: appreciative Shel eyes a
hippy hula queen; dunks in the surf off
Diamond Head; digs a pair of Hawaiian
beauties; jams with islander -vocal star Tom
Moku and pals in the Honolulu market place.

"Listen, you tell the manager this place stinks! Every mg
is modern ... everything is air conditioned. Where the h 1 I
is the atmosphere? Where the hell are the grass hut;
where are the natives? If I wanted Miami Beach, I'd h e j
gone to Miami Beach. Where is your 'tropical paradis< ? ;
Where is the simplicity. . .where is the serenity? And a) >, 1
where the hell is that damn bellboy with my drink?!!

• ^ *\ ✓

"And that's the story of King Kalakaua and
how he conquered the islands. You know,
it's really wonderful to find someone from
the mainland who is interested in our
history and culture. Most tourists who come
here just seem to be looking for — excuse me,
but would you mind taking your hand off my leg."

"And we're going to build more hotels and bigger
hotels and better hotels, and we're going
to get rid of all those damned palm trees and
build still more hotels, and get rid of that
beach and build greater hotels... and then when
the tourists arrive, we'll be ready for them!!"

"No, the other one... no, a little
to the left... now straight down... no,
a little above that one... no, no...

a little to your right... now just
above. .. that 's it... no, that one just
next... you almost had it...
just a little to your left . . . no . . . "

107

\ "Man, these rich
American girls — they
too bossy — they want to take me
to nightclub. .. I say OK — I go to
nightclub. they say let's go to bed —
OK. I go to bed. They say they want
to buy me present — I say OK, buy me
present. Then they say, 'You come to
store, pick out present' and I say,
'Just a minute, enough is enough I’"

. .A few carnations. . .=
orchid. . .And then the missionaries cor
and they take away our land and mak
us wear muumuu...and by 1 m' bye many Haw
die and Big Five own everything. . .bu
Hawaiians not mad at white people..
Hawaiians make leis for white people tour
A few carnations. . .some rose petals
a little poison ivy..."

"You see, Mr. Silverstein —
in the hula, the story is told
with the hands... the hands .

Mr. Silverstein. . .you have to
watch the hands . The
story is...uh, Mr. Silverstein...
Mr. Silverstein..."

"Back on the mainland everybody
thinks that this island is just a primitive,
backward place with ukuleles and
dancing girls in grass skirts and half-naked
savages swimming in the surf. When you
go back, please let them know we're just
as civilized here as they are."

109

PLAYS BALL

"Let’s see now ... Getting
hit in the beard by a
pitched ball ... No .
Getting hit by a
pitched ball in the
beard ... No .

Getting hit by ... "

PLAYS BALL

our bushy bush leaguer joins the
white sox for spring training

"Look, if you were a
pitcher, I'd rub down your
arm for you. If you were
an outfielder, I'd massage
your legs. But all you
do is sit on the bench,
and I'll be damned if I'll.

Dressed to the nines in pinstripe baseball flannels and toting a
well-padded mitt, cartoonist Shel Silverstein recently trekked
to Sarasota, Florida, for a five-week spring-training fling with
the Chicago White Sox. This trial introduction to the innings
and outs of big-league ball was for Shel a boyhood dream of
glory come true: while still a beardless Chicago youth he earned
his daily bread vending beer and hot dogs at Comiskey Park,
the White Sox bailiwick. According to our hirsute hero, he
came within a whisker of making the opening-day squad: “It
was Luis Aparicio or me,” he admits modestly, “and I just
didn’t want to hurt Luis’ feelings. As of now, I’m a free
agent, available to any ball club that might be a contender.”

113

"...One finger means throw
a high inside fast ball
. . . two fingers means
throw an outside curve
. . . three fingers
means your fly is
open . .
four

fingers ..."

n My greatest thrill since I've been
in baseball? Well I guess that
would have to be my first day in
the majors. We were playing
at Detroit and I strike
out three times, and
make two errors, and
we lose the game.

But as I’m leaving
the ball park,
this big blonde
comes over and tells |
me how much she
enjoys watching me
play and invites me to<
come up to her apart - \
ment, which happens (
to be right in the
neighborhood .

Well sir . . . ”

"So A1 Lopez says to me,

’Mantle,’ he says, ’If the
Yankees ever find out that

you're playing for us in your
spare time, they'll be plenty
\ mad, so how about growing
a beard so that nobody
will recognize you...?'”

"Gee, imagine —

18 years of pitching
in the majors!"

PLAYS BALL

concluded

Playing the Shel game, our catcher in the wry makes a flip return, poles one to the far reaches of the pitcher’s mound and flops ... . , K , ... c

y ... attempting to swipe second from Nellie rox

"Would you mind?
need a sketch of a
guy hitting a
home run .

"OK, Shel, so you dropped a fly
ball — let's face it, that
can happen to anybody.

So you ran after it
and fell down —
the grass is slippery
today. So you picked
it up and threw it into
the stands — that's
happened before.

So your pants
did fall
down ..."

"So I says, 'Look,

I'm a ball player
who loves to play
baseball. I eat,
sleep and dream
baseball. I got
baseball in my mind,
d baseball in my heart,
baseball running through
and if you think
' re going to get a guy
like that for a lousy
35 thousand a year,

' re crazy! ' "

"Here's how it works, Shel: I endorse Wilson
baseball shoes and they give me free shoes...

I endorse Gillette razors and they give me
free razors and razor blades... I endorse Wheaties and
they give me free Wheaties... So maybe you'd like me
to endorse those Bunnies down at that key club and ..."

114

’’You see, most people think umpires
lead unhappy, lonely lives, but
that isn’t really true.

Sure, the managers hate us,

but that's easily understood
. . . and so what if the fans
hate us, too, that's the
privilege they pay for... and so
we're not allowed to fraternize
with the players off the field —
heck, we don’t have much in
common with them anyway... and
sure, sometimes my family disagrees
with a call I've made, but all of
these reactions are a good,
healthy part of this great game and
not directed at me personally...
at least that's what my

psychiatrist tells me...”

’’Now, the secret of good
conditioning is running —

I want you to run out on that
field ... I want you
to do 20 laps around
the infield, and I
want you to keep
running, and do 10
laps around the
outfield, and I want
you to keep running
all the way back
to the hotel, and
pack your bag, and
keep running all the
way back to Chicago, so >
we can get some

work done here ! "

116

IN MIAMI

MARCH 1963

"Y'know, it's a funny thing. . .y 'all look more like a
fisherman than any man I've ever seen. When I first laid eyes on you, I
said to myself, 'Now there's a fisherman!' I says..."

"In March those damn college
girls flock down here...
in April those office girls
come down here. . .in
January the rich wives show
up... in June it's the
schoolteachers .

A real prostitute
doesn't stand a
chance anymore!"

118

silverstein in miami

Feigning indifference to Miami’s natural beauties, shaggy Shel ignites a cigar in the pool area of the Fontainebleau Hotel.

C lutching a jug of sun-tan lotion and whistling Moon Over you-know-what,
Shcl Silverstein, playboy’s wandering minstrel of the sketch board, recently
trekked to Miami Beach to research and relish the palm-fringed benefits of
that land flowing with mink and honeys. Venturing forth from his Fontainebleau
Hotel base, Shel first observed at close hand the storied playground and its sun and sand,
bars and boites, fur-bearing females and go- for- baroque architecture. Then, having soaked
up sufficient local color and Planter's Punch, our bushy chronicler set up his unjaded
palette and recorded these wry impressions of Florida’s phantasmagorial gold coast.

119

"Well, I can teach you to water-ski in about
two days and I can probably teach you to ski
with her on your shoulders in about
a week, but to do that on water skis...
that might take quite a while...

"H'mm. 103 degrees. .
almost too warm
for my mink . " •.

"You see, if a girl has a nice tan, that means she gets out to
the pool early in the morning, which means she wasn't out late the
night before, which means she hasn't met any
boys, which means her whole vacation has
been wasted. So if a girl's got
a great tan, she's in big trouble!"

"First I heard he was
single, so I wanted to meet
him... then someone said
he was a Cuban, so I
didn't want to meet him. . .
then somebody else said
he was Jewish, so I
wanted to meet him... then
somebody said he was
a rabbi, so I really wanted
to meet him. . .but then
I found out he's a cartoonist,
so to hell with him!"

"Look-

-why should we give you a complimentary
room? You've already drawn
our hotel into one of your
cartoons. We've already got
our publicity — absolutely free!"

122

Striking a pose b la Hemingway, Shel occupies a sport fisherman’s fighting chair while pitting his brawn against
a 90 -lb. sailfish, then treads the boards on a water-skiing jaunt up and down the blue waters of Biscayne Bay.

"Well, just because a
woman is a grandmother,
give me one good
reason why she has
to dress like an old
lady... give me one
good reason. . . ! "

"So we arrive at our hotel,
but as soon as we get unpacked,
we hear there's a newer hotel
over on Collins Avenue. So we
move over there, but before
we're unpacked, we hear that there's
a newer hotel right up the
street. So we move over there,
but before we even get
our luggage up to the room..."

123

IN A NUDIST CAMP

AUGUST 1963

"No... this is Sunny Hill Day Camp.
You want the Sunny Rest Nudist Camp.
That's about two miles up the
road and turn right at the..."

playboy's roving cartoonist doffs his duds and
uncovers a new facet of his art

in the six years that cartoonist Slid Silverstein has been
roaming the globe for playboy, drawing funny conclusions
from Madrid to Moscow to Miami Beach, no assignment
has proven more challenging — or more off the beaten
track — than his most recent: to depict the unabashed life
of a typical U. S. nudist camp. The site selected was Sunny
Rest Lodge of Palmerton, Pennsylvania, a well-regarded
buffer zone which graciously allowed Shel carte blanche
for a fortnight’s stay. When he arrived, with drawing pen
loaded for bare, embarrassment was his first reaction — but
inhibitions soon faded as our quick-change artist, now
birthday-suited, relaxed in his new environs. "These were
the most pleasant, relaxed two weeks of my life," he
recalls. "There was a great sense of freedom, of natural-
ness in the camp. Pretensions just vanished. Nobody,
you might say, had anything to hide." His advice to the
amateur nudist on getting past the first awkward confron-
tation scene: "Look straight ahead. Don't look sideways,
don’t look up and don't look down." Reflecting on what
it is like to live amidst a platoon of unclad females, he
notes, " I hey lose their sense of mystery. There’s no ques-
tion about that. On the other hand, relationships between
the sexes seem much more honest." Here is the epidermal
essence of SheJ's excursion into a brave nude world.

playboy’s uncover agent Shel Silverstein pauses expectantly at the entrance of the Sunny Rest Lodge nudist camp, then manages an uneasy
smile as he is met on the way in by camp director Zelda Suplee, a friendly sort who arrives chicly dressed in basic suntan.

Left: pondering the shape of things to come, Shel has some dire second thoughts about the entire project before (right) resolutely un-
fading his loins for the trek down the open road to the Sunny Rest recreation area and a beckoning world of sunshine and health.

"Why don’t be silly. . .

there’s nothing to be ashamed of..

the human body is
wonderful , natural ,
beautiful thing! | »»

"You’ll love it here...
unashamedly exposed to life...
embracing the earth...
luxuriating in the life-
giving rays of the sun...
at peace with birds and sky
and plants and animals...
at one with nature!

And you also get
to see a lot

of naked
girls! ! ’’

"Sometimes I don’t
think this goddamn

account is worth it!"

Getting his barings in the unfamiliar informality of the Sunny Rest camping
grounds, Shel chats with the directress and another companionable buff buff.

"Why I’d love to go for a walk
in the woods! And I have the
loveliest blue-denim
jumper to wear. . .with a

red polka-dot blouse...
and a matching
bandanna and . . . ”

"You see, it’s clothing that

stimulates the imagination.
Now if I were wearing lace panties,

you’d probably be all excited,
but instead you see me completely

natural and that’s the reason
you’re not in the

least affected, Mr. Silverstein.
Mr. Silverstein. .

Caught up in the spirit of camp life, our barefoot boy
with cheek admires the form of a fellow shuffleboarder.

"Well the next time

anyone calls me up to
come out for a part

in the filming
of a 'Naked City’...!'

don't know how
to ask you this, Laura,
but could I . . . er. . .
would you let me . . .
uh. . .could I take
a peek under
that Band-Aid?"

"After a while you'll get the hang of it.

You put your money inside your watch band.

You put your cigarettes behind your ear.

You put your driver's license
inside your shoe.

But that
fountain
pen . .

"...And I never have to
worry about my
shoulder straps falling down

The apprentice au naturellst takes time out from
an afternoon swim to chat with a comely comrade.

Now an enthusiastic convert to the spirit of altogetherness, Shel goes skinny-dipping in the camp pool with other disciples, all
sans suits; then happily whiles away the late afternoon by feeding a pretty pair of girl-type nudists an artful line — while admiring theirs.

II
1

"You see, my dear,
if any other cartoonist
tried to draw a man
and woman completely
nude like this —
front view —
no magazine would
print it.

But I draw it —
and they print it! ! "

"I think he
must be
a famous movie star..
I'm sure I've seen
him in films,
but I just
can't remember
his name ..."

"You know, nudism is such a
wonderful institution, it's a

shame that it has to be confined

to summer camps! Now I have this

big apartment back in the city and

"Listen, Shel, we've been out here for two weeks now-
when are you going to start drawing...?"

132

Relaxed and really in the swim of things at last, Shel disports himself with cool aplomb, enjoying himself thoroughly as a clutch of girls
pool their talents. “Beauty may be only skin deep,” he reports thoughtfully, “but there are times when that seems deep enough."

"Please, Shel...

I’ve already put on my shoes,
and I ' ve put on my bra . . . !
Don’t ask me
to put on any more...!"

"The great thing about a nudist
camp is that here, without
your clothes, everyone is equal!

For instance, you’d never know
that I am the president of
a large corporation!

You'd never know that I
am worth over $2,000,000!!
You’d never know that I own
a $100,000 home in Philadelphia,
three cars, and ..."

»»...And very few men used to ask me out, so I thought
it was because I was flat-chested, so I began
wearing falsies and a lot of men began asking me out,
but I realized they just liked me for my large chest,
so I began telling them I was wearing falsies
and then not very many of them asked me out, so I came
to this nudist camp and lost my self-consciousness
about my figure, but not very many of the men
here asked me out, so I went back to the city and told

everyone where I’d been and a lot of men began
asking me out, but I realized
it was just because
they associated nudism
with promiscuity,
so I began telling
them first that
I was definitely
not going
to sleep with
them... and
now nobody
asks me
out. . . !’’

"They ask me to take off
my coat, so OK! Then they ask
me to take off my shirt and
pants, so I go along with them!

Then they ask me to take off
my shorts and shoes and socks,
so all right, I cooperate!

So then they tell me to..."

"Now here is the way I figure it... Sally leaned against the poison ivy and
got it on her leg... the dog brushed up against her leg and got it on
his back... Mrs. Hansen petted the dog and got it on her
hand... then she slapped Mr. Heinrich on the back and gave it to him...
Mr. Heinrich scratched his back and then shook hands with Bob Coogan. . .
who patted Jeanie on the behind... and then..."

Left: sportsman Silverstein plays Ping-Pong, tries manfully to keep his eye on the ball. "Winning,’' he says, "never seemed less important."
Right; at eventide, playboy's vagabond cartoonist amuses his new-found Sunny Rest friends with clad tidings from the outside world.

IN MEXICO

MARCH 1965

SCHICKLESS shel Silverstein, playboy’s cartoonist
at large, recently ended a long stay Stateside by
donning sandals and sombrero for a foray down
Mexico way. Though sorely tempted at one
point to spend his entire southern sojourn bask-
ing in the congenial Acapulco sun, our whisk-
ered wit overcame his somnolence and covered
the country like a serape in a leisurely ramble
from Tijuana to Yucatan. True to the Silver-
stein tradition, Shel eagerly embraced a number
of old Mexican customs— including cockfighting,
tequila, la siesta and the seiioritas. Though a
seasoned world traveler (his sketch-pad junkets
for playboy in the last seven-plus years have
taken him to Tokyo, Scandinavia, London,
Paris, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Arabia, Green-
wich Village, Africa, Alaska, Hawaii and Mi-
ami), Shel is anything but jaded and, as the
accompanying cartoons show, still has no trouble
finding suitable subjects for his inky ingenuity.

silverstein

in mexico

playboy’s peripatetic penman ind ?es
in a south-of-the-border shel gc e

"I ... I really can't find the .

words to express it. Here I am in Taxco, the most enchanting

city in the world ... a beautiful girl at my side . . .

an orange sun burning in the clear azure sky . . .
the rows of picturesque adobe houses set along a lazy street ...

a gentle breeze caressing our hot bodies. ..
the romantic sounds of a guitar being played in the distance
. . . and I think I'm getting diarrhea. • •

"But, Sehor,
if I sold you
a bottle of
tequila, you

would not
expect me to
drink it with
you ... if I
sold you a

guitar, you
would not
expect me to
play it ... so
just because
I sold you
a blanket . . • n

11 OK, so you're hungry, but if I buy this for three

pesos and it’s only worth two pesos, then you'll
become materialistic and lose your simplicity,
so for your own sake, with your own best

Below left: Shel finds a spot of shade from

which to sketch a local peon at work, later shares a smoke with a caballero.

139

"You see, you Americans
have a stereotype
concept of Mexicans —
you picture us as

lazy peons, in big
sombreros, living in
adobe huts ! But there
is a modern Mexican
— an educated, urbane,
enterprising . , • well,
I'd explain more to
you, but it is time for
my siesta • • • !"

Below left: Feathers fly and a Mephistophelean Silverstein almost jumps into the pit himself. ("Ixcapuzalco” is the name of a fighting-cock
ranch.) Center.- Shel adorns monastery wall. Right: In Acapulco's zona roja, he discusses America's balance of payments with local economist.

140

"Well, of
course it f s two
roosters, what
the hell did
you think it
was going
to be? ! !"

"Well, if you've got no tele-
vision, no radio, no night
clubs and no movies, what in
the world do you do for

entertainment ?"

n I can't
understand
x t • # • i t
couldn't
have been
Maria — she ' s
much too
sweet • . . it
couldn't
have been
Dolores —
she was a
virgin ... it
couldn't
have been
Luisa —

she • . . "

"But if you just had a little

ambition, you'd move to the city
and get a job and work hard and,
in time, there 'd be promotions and
by saving and investing wisely,
you'd be financially secure and
then every year you could afford to
come here on a two- or three-
week vacation . . . ! n

"In the old days, Senor, a matador
had only to worry about the horns
of the bull. Now we must concern
ourselves with not turning our
backs to the camera, with wearing
the colors that will pick up well,
with staying out of the late-
afternoon shadows at the edge of
the ring and — most importantly
— remembering never to make the
kill during the commercial!"

"You Americans are never

satisfied! I get us two
good seats for the corrida
and you complain because
we're in the sun ... so we
exchange them for seats in
the shade and you complain
that we're not close
enough to the bulls ... so
we get the closest seats
possible, but now you

still complain!!"

143

"But when you went to
Spain, you tried
bullfighting. . . . When
you went to
Switzerland, you tried
mountain climbing....
When you went to..."

foot-loose shel
visits the gay side
of got ham's
offshore bohemia —
where the fruits
are unforbidden

"Fifty years ago it was something special to be a
homosexual: people were prejudiced against us. ..we
were persecuted. . .we were social outcasts. . .we
couldn’t find work I Now we’re everywhere : in

positions of importance in Hollywood. .. of
prominence in New York theater.. .of prestige on
the national literary scene. Homosexuality is

openly discussed and defended in the mass media-
in major magazines, on radio and television; we

also have our own publications, and national
organizations and societies — we even have our own
lobby in Washington. Today we’re accepted in most

liberal, upper-level sections of society; and in
sophisticated circles, we’re considered chic l We’re
not controversial any longer!... We don’t shock

anybody anymore ! . . .And

as a result, I’m seriously
considering going
straight ! !"

•Look, fella, in the first
place, I'm trying to draw
that building over there,. ••
Secondly, I don't have anything
to do with choosing the
Playmate of the Month..,,
Thirdly, the Playmate is
always a girl , , . ! Fourthly,.,*

J n THE eicht vears he's been reporting f 0r
playboy, roving cartoonist Shel Silverstein
has worked his inky wit in the four corners of
the globe. In the line-drawing of duty he has
been gored in a Spanish bull ring, badly injured
on safari in Uganda, knocked off the mound in
spring training with the Chicago White So: and
sunburned all over at a New Jersey nudist camp.
All these high adventures pale by comp ison,
however, with Shel's most recent (and most un-
usual) playboy assignment: to relax, as best he
could, for a week at a high-camp summer resort
In the last few years homosexuality as a social
phenomenon has emerged from the shadows, to
the extent that today there are clearly recc lized
gay enclaves in most big cities. Near Ne York
City, off the south coast of Long Island ere’s
Fire Island's incongruously yclept Cherr, ;rove
community, a small section of the free-sv iging
island resort tradition ally (and almost ex live-
ly) the province of Gothamites who would ather
switch than fight. Here, sans stares, home xuals
of every stripe gayly enjoy the amenitk of a
thriving vacation community. And here, tl ough
this summer fairyland, strolled our straigh John,
bewhiskered, bare-pated and bewildered, cord-
ing for posterity his walk on the Wilde s e.

"Look, Charlie, I'm no
psychiatrist, but it seems to
me that if you want to function as
a man , you're going to have
to stop wearing women's
clothes, and walking and

talking funny, and dating
guys.... On the other

"You say this guy walked up to you while
u were sketching, started getting friendly
told you you had beautiful eyes, and then
tried to make a pass?! Well, that's the
way these fagots are , buddy — and 1^ got to
patrol this damn beach all summer, and keep
these screaming queens in line, and watch
them swishing, and listen to their
screeching, and now that you mention it,
buddy, you do have beautiful eyes... !•

148

Above: A stronger in paradise, our outcast islander ponders status quo.

lelow; Sketching Shel hears bold new solution to population explosion.

"Don’t think I haven't made a real effort
to change the way I am... I I’ve gone to
straight parties. ... I 've tried dat-
ing girls.... I've tried going to bed
with them. I’m even seeing a psychi-
atrist twice a week, and he says
that while it would be a mistake to
become overly optimistic regarding
the eventual outcome of any such
case, after three or four years
of analysis, he

believes I may be
able to — hey —
there he is now!"

149

•Well, I suppose

drawing cartoons for
PLAYBOY isn’t too bad..

It's the fellow who
has to photograph
all those naked girls
I feel sorry for!*

"The gay boys call us 'rough trade' !

We're the ones they date. .. .We're the
they buy presents for.... And we're the ° es
ones who always give them a hard time
who beat them up and steal their money
So when I tell you ****

these fags are sick ,
you can believe they're
sick ! !*

■I'd like to kick off
tonight's show with a medley
of evergreens, including
'Mad About the Boy,' 'Just My Bill,'
'He's Funny That Way,’

'My Buddy'
and

'I Enjoy

Being a Girl’... !•

•Gosh, Sally, imagine finding a
great-looking girl like you
in a place like this!...

But what do you mean,
you're in drag ? !■

•Hello, Mom, this is Betty. .. .Yeah, I had a
nice trip, Mom.... No, the motorcycle didn't
give me any trouble. .. .Yes, Mom, I'm staying
with a girlfriend. .. .No. .. I didn't take my
pink chiffon gown, because I don't have any

use for it here. .. .Well, sure. Mom... sure
there are lots of nice Jewish boys around, but..."

Above: Shel extols virtues of heterosexuality to skeptical couple.

"...I'm relaxing in my cottage yesterday after-
noon, when the doorbell rings — and me —
thinking it's Philip, I run and put on my best
cologne, I put on my garter belt, I put on
my nylons and spike heels, I put on my black
negligee, I put on my wig and make-up, and I
run to the window and peek out — and it's my

parents ! ! So I run back into the other room, I
wipe off my make-up, pull off my wig, slip
out of the negligee, kick off the heels, remove
the nylons and take off the garter belt —
put on a pair of blue jeans, a flannel shirt and
a pair of loafers.

151

IN LONDON

JUNE 1967

sicvrnsrriN

our switcked-on beard catches the mod
show in a return visit to swingsville-on-thames

CONDON

ten years AGO, Shel Silverstein, our bawdy bard of the satiric sketchbook,
portrayed for playboy a London that was venerated and venerable. Eng-
land’s capital has since become the West’s prime example of urbane renew-
al; today, titled nobility is bypassed in favor of a closely knit coterie of
miniskirted mannequins, pop-music groups, fashion photographers, dress
designers and disco-technicians. Shel’s second sortie into Londontown finds
him caught up in the storied city’s new-found spirit. In a word: Modness.

At the foot of the statue of Eros, land- irk
of Piccadilly Circus, Silverstein is knee ep
in loveniks gathered to celebrate a warm 3 y.

Of course you can't find 'Swing-
ing London' ! There are only a
handful of people in London who
have enough money to swing. The
rest of us are busy doing articles
and picture stories and television
shows on 'Swinging London,' so
that you desperate Americans will
come swarming over here looking
for the action, and spend enough
money to beef up our economy so we
can afford to swing a bit l"

"Well, Mr. Silverstein, you passed the physical, but did poorly on the
mental exam, only average in the personality tests, language proficiency,
art and literature, but you'll be pleased to learn that your over-all
grade was a passing one, so we will consider tailoring you a suit 1"

,0 1

"She had her hair fixed like a 15-year-old,
just the way all the London girls have. She
was wearing the miniskirt of a 15-year-old,
just like they all wear. And she talked
and acted like a 15-year-old, just like
every woman does these days. So how the
hell was I supposed to know she was
actually a 15-year-old? ! I"

In Trafalgar Square, Shel draws a
bead on London's birds— the feathered
variety. Afterward, in Carnaby Street
shop, he displays wildly wide lapels as
salesgirl surveys Silverstein a la Mod.

"Sure, driving on the
left side of the street
confuses me. And driving
on the left side, while
looking at the girls in
their miniskirts, is
even more difficult.

But driving on the left
side, looking at the
girls, while trying to
figure out how much one
of them would cost on
the dollar-pound ex-
change rate, is just
too damn much ! !"

155

"Actually, all this
publicity about the
sexual promiscuity of
London girls is highly
exaggerated, and
you'll find after
you've been here a

while, Mr Mr.

what did you say your
name was again . . .

Twiggy, London supermodel and an
international celebrity at 17 , over-
sees lunch date Shel sketching away
at Alvaro's, mecca for rich young Brit-
ons. later, he digs the threads worn
by busbied Buckingham Palace guard.

"No cameras or drawing pads
allowed in the crown jewel
chamber? Well, what the hell
do you think I’m gonna do — steal
'em? I happen to be a well-paid
cartoonist — with an international
reputation — and besides, how could
anybody steal the crown jewels —
from an electrified glass case,
with three guards, in a stone
tower with a barred window?! It's
impossible ! Unless, of course,
you could find a way to lower
yourself to the window from the
parapet above, which would require
18 feet of rope, a grappling hook,
and a blowtorch for the bars. But
then you’d be faced with the prob-
lem of the electrified case, for
which you’d need a jumper wire and
a pair of alligator clips — to dis-
connect the alarm without inter-
rupting the circuit. But even then
you’d need somebody on the inside
to take care of the guards, and
how would you like to meet me at
the pub down the street a little
later for a friendly drink. . . ?"

"Well, they
don’t call
them sentry
boxes where I
come from . . . !
But it was an
honest mistake
...and I said
I was sorry...
and I will
clean it

"I remembered the
odds, I remembered the
amounts of the natural
bets, I remembered to
clear the layouts and
pay the outside bets
first, I remembered
the pay-offs, I re-
membered to offer the
bank, and I forgot to
take my pill . . . . "

Visiting the London Playboy Club's gaming
rooms, Silverstein concentrates his betting on
roulette, his attention on the Croupier Bunny.

"It’s great to have
another American to
share London with ! We
can explore Westminster
together, we can feed
the pigeons in Trafalgar
Square together, you
can introduce me to the
Beatles, and after that
I can manage on my
own . . . **

157

"When you
first arrived
in London, you
said my mini-
skirts were
sophisticated
and smart--now
all you say is
my ass is
showing !"

American mannequin Peggy Moffitt
leads Shel on a shopping safari in
Knightsbridge area. Silverstein then
repairs to a nearby pub, where he
downs a pint with playwright Herb
Gardner and film maker Jerry Farrell.

"That's old Betsy, and you've been introduced to Spot and Judy,

so I guess you've met the entire family Oh, and, of

course, I also have a wife and three children...."

"Through liberal
legislation our
antiquated sex
laws are being
modernized.
Homosexuality
for example, was
once a ma j or
offense , then it
became a minor
infraction; a
few months ago
it was made
legal and I, for
one, shan't be
satisfied until
it becomes
mandatory !"

"You say I never
take you anywhere
but to bed. . . . OK,
here we are — Big
Ben — landmark of
London, symbol of
the city's enduring
strength and dignity
— for over a cen-
tury, steadfastly
ringing the hour,
ticking the minutes
— reminding us that
time is passing, life
is expiring, youth
is vanishing — tick-
tock, tick-tock —
'live, live, ' it
seems to say — bong-
bong — 'live, live' !
Let's go home and
go to bed!"

Neither rain nor fog can stay the hand of playboy's penman:
Silverstein, with brolly unfurled, camps out on Westminster
Bridge for a moist morning of drawing historic Big Ben.

159

playboy's roving cartoonist laureate sets his sights on
the exotic fauna flourishing in and about tinseltown

for more than a decade now, playboy’s bewhiskered
cartoonist, Shel Silverstein, has risibiy illuminated for us
many of the nation’s odd corners, including Fire Island
and Greenwich Village; he has toured the Middle East,
the Far East and Africa, gone bird watching in Lon
don and embarked on his own mission to Moscow
Yet his star had never led him to Hollywood — an
omission that is rectified herewith, as Shel dispels the
golden ha ze and peeks under assorted halos to por
tray the producer-hunting starlets, the status-hunting
executives, the goggle-eyed tourists, the fast-talking
guides and the fast-moving youth of the world’s dream
capital. Not even the secrets of such sanctified figures
as Mickey Mouse and Goofy escape Shel’s quest for
truth. ”It’s all true: It is a town of phonies,” says Shel.
“lazy, shallow guys, desperate girls and smalltime
hustlers — I feel completely happy and at home there!”

This is it, folks, Holly-
od and Vine, the heart of
movieland, crossroads of the
stars, where at any moment —
Hi ya , Frank! That was Frank
Sinatra who just drove by in
that sports car, folks. Hey ,
Marlon , baby — how ' s it
goin ' ? ! That was Marlon
Brando who just looked out
of that window up there.

And, if I'm not mistaken,
that's the Tony Curtis lim-
ousine coming down the
street — and who's that
riding with Tony? Why, it's
Natalie Wood and Rock Hudson
and Kim Novak and Cary Grant
— and they're heading this
way. Oops, too bad — they
turned off — yessir, folks,
you're really seeing the
great ones today . . . !"

■

"Wait till you see it tonight...
lights flashing across the sky...
stars and starlets arriving in
chauffeur-driven limousines. . .police
fighting to hold back the cheering
crowds...! I tell you, it's going to
be the greatest SUPERMARKET OPENING
this town has ever seen!"

"In Hollywood, it's all a matter of
being discovered . I was originally
discovered parking cars at Dino's on
the Strip — got myself a contract at
Paramount. Then I was discovered
sitting in the studio commissary— got
a small part in a TV Western. Then I
was discovered by a major producer —
got an important role in a big-budget
picture. And finally, I

At Grauman's Chinese Theater, Shel plays arch-
tourist, tries to fill Jack Oakie's footprints.

" Of course I'm going to be a big
star!... you noticed me on that
crowded dance floor at P.J.'s — that
proves I have personal magnetism
...you propositioned me — that proves
I have sex appeal . . . I did every-
thing you told me to do — that proves
I can take direction . . .and I
convinced you that you're a great
lover — that proves I can act!"

Silverstein can't decide what to order at The Ball, a topless
bistro. Shel's appraisal: "The beef StroganofF was just fair."

"So my agent asks
me if I want to
make a TV pilot,
and I say, sure,.,
and the next thing
I know, I r m in a
hotel room with a
naked guy in avi-
ator goggles. ..."

"We tried making love on the
board, but a lot of surfers had
already done that. Then Barbara
got pregnant on the board, but
even that wasn't a first. So
just as soon as Barbara
starts getting her
labor pains, we're
going to paddle out
and wait for a big
wave and. . . .

"Mine is a rather unusual story.... I really
came to Hollywood to become a hooker....

But there were too many girls on the Strip with
more experience. And then
I met him — good-
looking, a smooth
talker — told me
he was a pimp
promised to
get me into
prostitution.

Like a fool,

I believed him.

By the time I
found out he
was really a
talent scout ,
was too late,
my dream was
gone. ..I'd
become a
movie star!"

"Oh, sure, I can tell you about the
sex clubs and the pot smoking and
the LSD trips, but if you want to
know about the free-speech movement

and the
student
political
demonstra-
tions,

|_ | I you'll have
to ask one
of the

older kids "

At Muscle Beach, Shel draws the la-
tissimus dorsi but eyes the pectorals.

"Out here, we learn to
swim when we're three
'\ years old, water-ski at

six and surf at nine. ...We learn to drive a
car when we’re 13, motorcycle at 15 and fly
a plane by the time we’re 21. One of these
days, I’ve simply got to learn how to walk!"

"Sure, you hear rumors
about all the homosex-
uals in Hollywood, but
you don’t see any
evidence to substantiate
the rumors!"

"Of course, the
size of the pool
the impor-
tant thing — the
important thing is
having a pool !"

"In the old days, it was simple — you
balled the producer and you got the
part. Now they have a producer, and
a coproducer, and an executive
producer and an associate producer.

A girl doesn’t know who to ball
anymore !"

Faced with a glossy pate, Jay Sebring, tonsorial
artist to the stars, settles for trimming Shel's beard.

Shel sizes up the pleasure-domed gold mine built by o
noted fellow cartoonist, dreams of his own Silversteinland.

"Sure, it 1 s hot wearing these costumes, but the gig
is really sort of groovy; I mean, like last week
these two crazy-looking chicks start following me
around the park and, when it gets close to closing
time, one of them says, ’Mickey, baby,
how would you like to take a real trip
to Fantasyland? f Well, I can see they
have eyes to make a scene, so we pick
up Bob, here — I mean
Goofy — who also
grooves with the
idea, and the
four of us split
for the chicks’
pad, where we
settle back and
smoke some
Acapulco gold

AMONG THE HIPPIES

JULY 1968 | AUGUST 1968

AMONG THE

playboy’s grand guru roams the hashbury with pen and flower in hand

"i tell myself I’ll start drawing today and head down Haight Street
toward Hippie Hill,” says our bearded Shel Silverstein. "Three people
sit in a doorway smoking grass, A guy in a monk’s robe asks me for some
spare change. Electric rock comes from a basement window. The girls
line up at the free clinic to get their birth-control pills — a sign says,
don’t give the clap to someone you love. The tourists drive by with
their windows rolled up. ‘Wanna buy a lid?’ The Diggers ladle out free
beef stew and apples. Beads, pot pipes, posters, underground newspap rs
for sale. Written on a psychedelic-painted truck, don’t lauch, your
daughter may be in here! A hand reaches out of some bushes and gives
me a roach. A long-haired girl takes my hand and leads me up a path
through some trees, where we lie down. Afterward, she smiles and says,
‘Welcome to Haight-Ashbury.’ I think I’ll wait and draw tomonov

•First, let me welcome you to
Hashbury. . . . Secondly, let me
warn you about narcotics
agent s — they * re everywhere .
. . . Thirdly, let me lay
this lid of grass on you
as a gift of love. . . . And,
fourthly, let me inform
you that you are under
arrest !•

•Of course, there's a lot more
to see in San Francisco
than Just Haight-Ashbury.

There are the opium dens
of Chinatown . . . the pot
parties on Telegraph
Hill . . . and there's
Fisherman's Wharf,
which is a gas
when you're
tripping on

acid

•Gee, Shel, I'd invite you to
stay in our commune, but I'm al-
ready sharing my bedroom with
four pot smokers. ... We keep away
from the living room, because
it's full of speed freaks who
are very paranoid about the two
smack junkies living in the
closet. ... And the acid heads
never come out of the kitchen,
because the opium eater in the
bathroom brings them down. ... So
I wouldn't know where to put a
guy who doesn't use anything 8 !•

•There's no such
thing as prosti-
tution here. . . .
This is a land of
love ! I give you
my body because I
love you . ..."
And then you give
me some money
because you love

•Well, I guess this destroys the myth about hippies never bathing!!!"

■It's almost a perfect
psychedelic poster . . .
except I can still read
three of the words!*

Silverstein sizes up the panhandlers in front of the Drog Store ° n
the Boulevard of Brotherly Love (Haight Street to nongrt overs)-

172

■Well, first we pass
around a what chamacal lit
. . . and get everybody to
sign it . . . and then we
take it to the . . . uh . .
the House of Whoeverthey-
are . . . and get them to
pass a . . . y' know . . .
we show that to
the • • • uh • • • the • •

and then
• uh, • «

"You see, our world is linked
to music. This sitar is over
one hundred years old. It's made
of Indian cedar, and the neck is
inlaid with black pearl, and trimmed
in hammered silver. ... The pegs are
hand-carved ivory, and the strings have
a history of. . . .•

■But you can’t play it!"

■Man, you don’t understand. This sitar
is over one hundred years old. It's
made of Indian cedar, and. ...”

* - .

Shel, blowing recorder, joins friend Tony Price, on flute, and
saw-playing Golden Gate Park regular for a musical session.

•I mean, why do these p, jr„

hflVfi tn roKol am) a

«xi« uxy CO cnange the
whole damn worl

■Isn't it groovy living together like this
— free from the middle-class conventions
and obligations of marriage ! Listen,
supper won’t be ready for another twenty
minutes, so why don't you take out the
garbage and go pick up the laundry and,
oh, yes, stop by the grocer's and get
some coffeecake — I've invited Francine
and Bill to come over later and watch
television. ■

•Well, sure . . . lots of hippies have
lars. I need a car. I mean, how else would
I be able to get home weekends . ...
Not that I want to go home, but that's
the only way I can get my allowance ,
man. ... I mean, not that I want an
allowance, but how else could I
pay the rent on a seven-room
apartment . ... Not that I. . ■ ."

"Well,
what did the
doctor say — ?"

"He says I got it — I"

•Gee, that's too bad."

"Yeah, and if I got it, that
means Betty's got it — !"

•Hey, if Betty's got it, then
Claude probably has it — !"

. Well, if he's got it, then
Diane undoubtedly has it — !"

"Jesus Christ! Diane?!"

"What's the matter?"

"I got it. "

175

NEXT MONTH: MORE OF
SILVERSTEIN AMONG THE HIPPIES

AMONG Th El

the further adventures of truth seeker shel in darkest ha bt

a GUY IN a BLANKET panhandles on the corner with a sign, it's debbik IK . in

^- ,,F ; LP M f ® CT HER H,CH '" Shel reports, recalling his Hashbury hit i R i lU ,

The other night, some guys sneak into the zoo, shoot a buffalo, dnu out

ant the Diggers have meat for their free food line. A beaded girl takes n „„„

makes like’ to ine and never speaks a word. An old man on a soapbox „ u v «

tried pot, you've tried LSD— now how about giving Jesus Christ a , nte y

And everyone talks about the 'death of the hippies' and they stage a i DD J

funeral and some people who were just sitting in doorways getiim ,d„ Pf ,

march to the park carrying a giant coffin, and they set it on fire a, do a
dance around it and everybody says. Well, the hippie thing is dea. And

t en they all go back to Haight Street and sit back in the doorways a start

getting stoned again. And the funeral is over, but the corpse is still gr> ing."

•Well, if you just want to take our
picture , it will cost you a quarter,
••• It you want a picture of us rolling a
Joint and getting high, that will cost you
a dollar. . . . And for five dollars, we’ll
call a cop over while we're smoking and you
can get a great shot of us being busted!!*

•Every night it's the
same damn thing — I walk
down the hill to Haight
Street and I pick up a chick,
but when I tell her where I live,
she refuses to climb up the hill.

... So I get her high, and now
she's ready to climb up the hill, but
she's too stoned . ... So I walk her
around the block until she comes down a
little, and now she's straight enough to
climb up the hill, but she's too tired .
... So I climb back up the goddamn hill
and go to bed alone!*

" Independence — that's why
these kids come here— to
escape from their parents
and establish their
independence ! And we
Diggers help them — we give
them free food ! ... And the
Free Store gives them free
clothes ! . . . And the Free
Clinic gives them
free medical

•Hey, man, didn't I meet you in Paris
during the expatriate scene?"

•Ho, but maybe we met in Greenwich Village
during the beatnik scene."

•Yeah, I was there . . • and I think I also
used to see you in Big Sur during. . . .*

'“-".T? MJf f *• «* to

anal, .as simply ,f 0t buste ' J -

’I’m doing this as a
statement of independence,
a rebellion against my
parents and a protest
against outdated
puritanical morality.
Why are jou doing it?"

Silverstein looks on os Haight resident pastes the
mind-blowing donations to be doled out to the

•Sure, they shout about the
freedom of going barefoot—
but they don't shout about
the broken glass, and the
dog shit, and the. ..."

"... And while you were out
all night getting high, did
you ever think about your
wife and children waiting for
you here at home . . . did you
ever consider bringing a little
something home with you,
so that we could get
high, too?! Oh,

Ill

"Loner hair is hard to manage
. . . earrings are expensive . . .
shawls are uncomfortable
. . . beads are a bother . . . !
Sometimes I wish I'd been
born a girl !■

"Sure, I can feel it, but I
don't think it's affecting

my drawing style ! ! '

•Shel— you're wearing a blanket 1
Now you're one of us— liberated
from the senseless restrictions
of clothing, no longer governed
by the inane miles of
fashion . . . ! Of course, it is
a little too short ... and it's
the wrong color . . . and. . . ."

■Oh, Shel, what a beautiful day!

We'll take some Dexi to get us
going . . . smoke some pot to make
breakfast taste better . . . then
we'll take that acid trip I've been
promising you . . . and tonight we'll
sniff coke to help us make love
. . . and take some Seconal. ..."

•But I didn't mean to go to bed with him,
Shel — I was standing in the psychedelic
shop, when he walked up and showed me his
' LSD ' button, so I showed him my ' Better
Living Through Chemistry ' button, then he
showed me his ' Get Out of Vietnam ' button,
so I showed him my ' Hake Love, Not War '

button, and then he showed me his ' Let ' s

Fornicate for Freedom ' button and I didn't
have any button to reply, so I didn't know

what else to do ... !"

Silverstein hongs out with sun-grooving nature children
at the Morningstar Ranch just outside of Son Francisco.

•OK, let's check the list.

Let's see. . . . Smoke pot— check.

. . Take LSD trip— check. . . . Go to
a love-in — check. . . . Panhandle in
the street— check. . . . Join a
protest movement— check. . . . Get
arrested— check. All right,

Susie, I guess we can
go back to Milwaukee now!"

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Hugh M. Hefner, LeRoy Neiman, Larry Moyer, Victor Lownes and Art
Paul for the interviews, images and insights. Gracious thanks to Hef, Leopold Froehlich,
Tom Staebler, Mary O'Connor, Bradley Lincoln, Aaron Baker, Gene Snyder and everyone at
Playboy for making this collection possible. Humble thanks to the Silverstein family for the
opportunity. Big thanks to Michael Carr, Ali Benis and Ellen Philips for their professional
assistance. Added thanks to Joy Kingsolver and Jerry Foust for their archival efforts. Finally,
thanks to Jack Romanos, Mark Gompertz, Trish Todd and everyone at Simon & Schuster.

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Playboy's Around The World By Shel Silverstein"

See other formats